


Not the Role, I wished to play

by JinxAnn



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Don't date your Ex, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hint for Past Larrakin / Shudder, How Do I Tag, I stole ideas from Howl's moving castle, M/M, Midnight Hotel, Multi, Skulduggery tries to be a reponsible adult, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:42:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28812114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxAnn/pseuds/JinxAnn
Summary: Valkyrie needs to get her life into a functional lane again - being lonely and not knowing where she really belongs, just does not work. Being only 18 years old and confronted with regret, loneliness and confusion she does, what anyone her age would have done - making stupid decisions. However Skulduggery tries to be the responsible adult he should be for her, and figures out it's none of his talents. But fortunately Shudder finds his very own unusual methods of helping Valkyrie to grow out of this foolish teenage behavior.Slightly AU: Ghastly is dead, because we can't just pretend it didn't happen - but we can when it comes to Shudder! Also i stole some magic from "Howl's moving Castle' to make the Midnight Hotel more accessable. Pre 5-Year-Gap, ignoring the whole mess honestly. There is a little Smut scattered in between, but it's actually Plot with Porn, not the other way around. Am I allowed to say that?
Relationships: Anton Shudder / Valkyrie Cain, Valkyrie Cain/Fletcher Renn
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	1. Not a call, I wished to get

**Author's Note:**

> So people, please let me say one or two things before you start reading this.
> 
>  **First:** English still isn't my native language, but i do my best here! I asked myself about 20 times, why on earth i don't write this shit in german. Not gonna lie, it probably would have way more impact if i did, but I am always annoyed when i stumble over fics in languages I don't understand. So I rather go through the struggle, and share it with more readers, than the three germans around here.
> 
>  **Second:** Yes, yes i totaly stole the magical door from Howl's moving castle, to give the characters a way to leave the Midnight Hotel towards Roarhaven, instead of... let's say siberia! Sorry, but it just never made sense to me. there HAS to be a way for Shudder to reach the others, while his hotel is in the middle of nowhere. If there actually was a way descriped in the books that i didn't catch - let's say i did it for style-reasons, okay?
> 
>  **Third:** I actually didn't want to upload this until I am fully done with it. Because I hate it, when I get into a Fic and then there are still 20 Chapters missing, and I know I will never come back to check if it got updated. BUT I figured I need some preassure to write faster, so here you got anyway.

* * *

Skulduggery played a lot of different roles during his past. He was a Hero, a soldier, for some he was a villain. He was a teacher for Valkyrie, he once was a father and a loving husband, even though those are times he refuses to remember. He was the dead man and the mad man for some. But never would he himself have seen him as ‘the responsible adult’ in any possible future.

He was deeply meditating, letting go of all his anger and frustration about puzzles he couldn’t solve just yet. His Phone, which was buried in his jacket’s pocket, pulled him out of his meditating state. It played it’s little melody as it rang for Skulduggery’s attention. With the rattling of some bones and a sigh he got up from his worn out arm-chair and strolled over to the wall, where his jacket hang. To be fair, he did not expect any emergency calls. They had no acute case at the moment. So naturally he was a little bit surprised when he saw the name shown on the display. It was Shudder.  
He picked up the call and answered. The voice on the other end was, as expected, Anton’s. “I am sorry to bother you my friend, but I thought you would want to know that Valkyrie just arrived here at the midnight hotel.” If Skulduggery would have a face, he would have pulled up his brows in surprise at this point. He didn’t say anything yet. His Friend sounded calm….mostly, maybe a bit flustered. He looked at the Clock, it was nearly 3am. Sure Valkyrie was 18 years now and absolutely capable to watch out for herself, but this was still unusual behavior for her. He was just about to reply, as Shudder continued. “I can just put her in one of the rooms here, and send her home in the morning. But since she isn’t exactly in…..” he paused, obviously looking for the right word. “…her best condition, you might want to pick her up instead?”. Skulduggery’s head jerked up. “What do you mean? Where is the Hotel at right now? I’ll come and pick her up.”  
He already had his jacket pulled over and was out of the door as he spoke those words. Anton’s voice came with a dark chuckle out of Skulduggery’s Phone. “No listen, she isn’t hurt or anything. Just…well…drunk, I dare say.” Now he was actually laughing. “I didn’t make you rush out your door, because you thought she came here injured or anything.” Skulduggery stopped and stood in front of his house. “She is what?” his head tilted in disbelief and a little bit of embarrassment, since Shudder was exactly right about his reaction. “Why so skeptical? She is 18, it’s not like she never got drunk before, right?” Anton replied, his voice clearly distracted, as if he was busy on the other end of the connection. The Detective, now less in a hurry but therefore grumpy, walked over to his garage as he spoke into the phone. “To be honest I never saw her drinking, for sure never saw her drunk. Anyway I’ll come and pick her up.” He hang up and got into his Bentley.

* * *

_(midnight hotel)_

The phone call ended with a ‘beep’ and Anton hang the earpiece back onto his old-fashioned counter-telephone. The amusement still didn’t leave him, the panic in his old friends voice was just so evident and it warmed his heart to see, that after all he was able to care this much for someone else. It was good, that Valkyrie and Skulduggery had each other after all.

Just as he was lost in this thought he witnessed how said young lady tried to lean against a tall Vase in his foyer and tumbled over with it. The bone-shaking sound of breaking porcelain and a clearly understated “Ouch” filled the silence. The smile vanished off of his face and he sighed as he rounded the counter and walked over to Valkyrie. “I shouldn’t have let you lose near breakable furniture….my fault.” He said and helped her up. God, this vase was nearly as old as himself and unique too, china sorrows would start crying if she would have witnessed this. But still, Anton was too much of an professional host, to get angry about something like this. Things broke all the time, he will get over it. “Did you hurt yourself, Valkyrie?” He could see Blood on her Hand as she got to her unsteady feet again. Obviously the Vase cut into it, as she fell. “Thas nothing!” Valkyrie mumbled rather confident and wiped the blood off at her coat. Just now Anton really looked at her. She wasn’t wearing her usual Clothes, nothing practical and clearly nothing Ghastly made. She wore Boots with uncharacteristic high heels….not high…but high for Valkyrie’s standards. Her bare legs disappeared right over her knees in a dark red dress and she wore a black coat over it. Her hair was different, curly? And was that Lipstick she wore? For a moment he froze as realization bloomed in his head. He may wasn’t the most socialable Person, but he was a man after all, and old enough to know how a woman looks like after a disastrous date. He choose to leave this newly found knowledge uncommented. Instead he put one arm around her and led her behind the counter “Come on we get that fixed anyway.”

Valkyrie nodded “mmm kay.” She approved and gladly leaned onto him, as she didn’t quite trust her own feet. Behind the counter was a little room with a tiny kitchen and a small table with only two chairs. She slid clumsy on one of them as Shudder pulled open two drawers. “thanks Shudder.” She mumbled again in a low voice. She didn’t sound like a happy drunk girl, clearly a bad date. Anton had his back turned towards her, so he didn’t bother to hide the grimace that formed on his face as he thought about it. It is always sad when young people act so cruel with each other’s feelings, but then again he did not know what happened. He turned towards her, in his hands disinfection, cotton and a big piece of Band-Aid. “Don’t worry, not the first drunk that smashes the interior of my foyer.” He said calming, and it was the truth too. “How did you even find the hotel?” he was honestly curious about this, sure they weren’t far from Dublin, but at a rather unusual place near a camping-area. She looked at the floor as she answered his question. “Fletcher” she said with a bitter tone.

“Ah” Anton replied, not feeling the need to press the topic any further. Soon he had fixed the Cut on her hand and got up to prepare some tee for the two of them. Valkyrie didn’t really feel like having a conversation either as she put her Head onto her arms on top of the table. Good, he never really liked Smalltalk.

The room around Valkyrie appeared to move upwards and then jump right back into it’s original position. It made her sick. She tried to close her eyes but that made it only worse. As soon as the herb smell of earl grey filled her nose, she capitulated. “…..I think I am going to be sick”. The word left her mouth between gritted teeth as she got a hold on the table and slowly got up. She made an attempt to move towards the window, as a firm arm wound itself around her middle and pulled her off her feet. Anton hurriedly threw her over his shoulder and left the little room with long strides. “No way young lady. You will not vomit out of any of my windows. No Magic will clean those outer Walls.” Valkyrie’s fingers dug into the thick fabric of his vest as she desperately tried to keep control of her stomach and tried not to sway with each of his steps. “Shudder, this is a horrible idea! Put me down! Put me down!” she yelped.

And he did, as they reached one of the bathrooms. She wasted no time to get to the toilette and bend over it as the toxic liquid made it’s way back out of her system in the least pleasant way. She didn’t know if Shudder left her to spare her even more embarrassing moments and right now she didn’t care, she just was thankful for the fact, that everything in his hotel was extra clean.

How did everything turn so miserable in only a few hours….but then again, she was miserable to begin with, right? It was the first Christmas-Season without her family and being all alone in Gordon’s….no in her house….didn’t really help her mood to cheer up. She felt alone, she hated to go home after work, so either she kept working far more than was healthy or she stayed at Skulduggery’s place until it became far too obvious. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to be alone during Christmas, she wanted….just someone in her life. Considering this, it didn’t sound like a bad idea when Fletcher asked her out on a date. His arguments didn’t sound too stupid too. He told her how they were older now, sorted out the things that happened between them in the past, how he sorted out his feelings about Stephanie and her passing and how it just wasn’t good to be alone, for both of them. So a date seemed like a good idea. It was not though. In fact it was a horrible idea.

She didn’t really know how long she kept kneeing on the bathroom floor as another wave of sickness flooted her system and she clung to the ceramic seat beneath her. Someone stepped behind her, knelt down and cool fingers pulled her hair together and out of the way. “Thanks Shudder, I am sorry.” She rasped, but jumped startled as a familiar velvet voice answered instead of Shudders deep rumble.

“Hell no, Anton can’t stand people vomiting. He fled as soon as he was sure you won’t wrack havoc in his bathroom.” Skulduggery said. But there wasn’t as much amusement in his voice as there should have been with such a confession. Not that he sounded dead serious, but clearly he wasn’t happy about the scene before him. “What are you doing here?” she asked in disbelief. 

He tilted his head and probably stared directly into her face, no one really could tell where he is looking at. “Picking you up obviously, as Anton called me to tell me that you disturb the peace at his hotel.” Miserable as she felt, she stared at him and the only color in her face, was the red color of shame. “He did not say that, did he?” there was a little hope in her voice.

“Ne he did not, but he might as well” the Detective replied. “But what were you thinking appearing here of all places when you decide to get drunk? So I assume this date with Fletcher didn’t go well? Maybe the two of you learn to leave the past behind now.”

She kept looking at him utterly perplexed. “How do you know it was a date with him?” She regretted the question as soon as she asked it. Of course he knows, he probably figured that out the moment he saw her.

“You don’t really expect me to answer this, do you?” his posture radiated this special Skulduggery-kind-of-arrogance. “can you stop hugging this toilette now, I can’t have a serious conversation with you, when you look like a thirsty dog.” He got up and pulled her with him. She didn’t really feel ready to let go of the thing yet, but there was no choice. Skulduggery reached for a little package on the sink-counter and pushed it into her hands. “Here. From Shudder. clean yourself, he got tea ready.”

In her hands now was a packed toothbrush, toothpaste and a face cloth. She blinked and then nodded tired. Skulduggery left, assured that she was sober enough to take care of herself.


	2. Not a guest, I expected to have

When she left the little bathroom and regained her orientation, she saw Skulduggery and Shudder sitting at the lunge area in the foyer. A tray with tea sat on the table. She approached them with slow dragged steps. “Ah the lovely princess is back from her very lady-like adventure.” Skulduggery teased as she took a seat. Shudder just looked at her. She never was good at reading his facial features. “Oh shut up.” She groaned. Now that she sobered up slowly, her head began to hurt and everything just was too bright, too loud and she was cold. Why the heck didn’t she wear anything warmer. Shudder wordlessly handed her one of the tea-cups, and took the second one himself. “So do you want to talk about it, or shall we just go home?” Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie glanced to the other dead man and then back to Skulduggery, she didn’t say anything and just sipped her tea as her gaze went to the floor ashamed.

Anton Shudder may didn’t favor socializing all that much, but as Hotelier he knew how to understand social situations quite well. “Excuse me, I go and fetch some water for Valkyrie.” He said and left them alone. He didn’t mind, that she didn’t feel like speaking freely when he was around. Skulduggery was her closest friend, and she didn’t have all that much to do with him so far. Giving them some privacy to sort things out, was just fine with him.

He busied himself first in the small kitchen. Putting things from here to there and cleaning imaginary dirt. As he couldn’t pretend any more work there, he moved to the counter and repeated the same procedure with some papers. At last he got a glass, filled it with some water and went back to either see his friends provided with a room or wish them a safe trip home. He knew Skulduggery for many decades now, and he didn’t need to hear any of the conversation to know that he was not pleased, some could mistake it for anger, but Anton knew better. As he got close however he could not avoid to catch the rest of the conversation between his friends. “if you really don’t want to go back, you can stay at my place for as long as you want. I didn’t get this room for you to let it stay empty, you know?” Valkyrie looked into the void of Skulduggery’s eye sockets and clearly couldn’t bring herself to just say yes. “What’s the problem? You stayed over for weeks non-stop before.” He continued, pressing the topic. “Yes I did, but that’s something else than moving in. As long as I plan to go back home it is fine, but…” she protested. Anton just took the freedom to involve himself into the discussing, now that he was here anyway. “I think what you mean is when you move in with him you two will never stop working. Which is fine for you, my friend, but I think Valkyrie needs some borders between private life and work.” Both looked at the Hotelier as he finished his helpful statement and handed her the glass – she didn’t even finish the tea yet. “Yeah that.” Valkyrie agreed, even though she wasn’t really aware this was, what she tried to say until she heard it from someone else.

Skulduggery just tilted his head. “How can anyone not want to work non-stop on exciting cases?” he asked in faked shock. “Well then what do you want to do? Go back home and just figure things out like an adult?” he asked with this teasing doubt in his voice. Sure Valkyrie was 18 years old now, but often enough she just didn’t want to act adult. In her not quite sober state even more so. She pouted. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She hissed.

Shudder didn’t take a seat, instead he kept standing next to them. “If I puzzle this together right, you don’t want to be alone at the mansion? If you’d like, you could stay here for a little while. I wouldn’t mind, as long as you follow the rules. But you would need to cope with the fact, that the hotel is moving.” Shudder offered. He honestly didn’t mind to offer a place to stay for his friends, but he did expect her to decline and take the Detectives offer instead. So Surprise took over, when she did not decline but kept silent until Skulduggery got up and put his hat on. “Well then, as it looks that is the plan, judging by your hesitation. But you know, you always could just use your room at my place if you get those things sorted out. Wow, that was a drive for nothing!” he faked some indignation. Valkyrie chuckled with rough voice. “but you love driving the Bentley, so it was absolutely okay!”

Much to Anton’s astonishment, Skulduggery pulled his partner in a tight hug before he left, and even wiped some dried tears off her cheek. Then he bit them both a good night and thanked Shudder for the call and for letting her stay at the hotel. Shudder could tell by the way he kept sitting in his car before finally turning on the engine, that there still was something that angered him in some way, but if he chose to say nothing, then it wasn’t his business at this point. He closed the front door and then took in the sight of the young woman that looked so lost beside him. “I did not think you actually would want to stay.” He confessed a little awkward, but instantly was aware of the mistake. This wasn’t really the right thing to say, to make someone feel welcome. “But, I am glad you do.” He added quickly. He could see how her face showed some relief about this. “come on, let’s see which room we can give to you.”

After a quick look into his reservations-book and the key-board het fetched a vintage looking golden key and scribbled something down on a piece of paper before he led the most unusual dead man upstairs towards room 08. This night once again made obvious to him, how much younger than the other dead men she was; and that a young women had quite some different escapades than young men….but then again not absolutely different. He remembered Ghastly being all drunk and miserable once after a really bad date with this blonde lady from Marseille. A nostalgic smile flickered over his face as he remembered those old days. “Here we are. Room eight.” He announced as he pushed the door open.

Valkyrie stepped into the room, as he made some space to let her enter first. Her mouth open in surprise. Just now she realized that she was at the hotel several times before, but she never entered any of the rooms. They always only met in the kitchen or foyer. The room looked as vintage as the key. Everything looked like it got right stolen out of the time….maybe the 20s? She never was good with history. And the most charming thing about it was, that it wasn’t probably just a style or marketing-strategy, but honestly the last time Shudder upgraded his rooms. There was a Bed at the middle of the right wall that was big enough for two people, but clearly not as big as the double-sized beds these days. A red blanked with grey ornaments on it covered the actual bedding. Right before the bed was a tiny sitting area with a small, round and dark wooden table – also decorated with wooden ornaments, and two red leather chairs. Below was a green and cream colored carped, that covered some of the wooden floor. The walls were covered in white wallpapers with really thin and fine golden patterns. Even though the room was far from big, the windows on the opposite wall were big and covering them were thin white hangings, framed by green ones that matched the carpet. It looked old and lovely and she felt like a time traveler.

“What are you staring at? It is not like you got the presidential Suite.” Shudder questioned in a serious manner. Just now Val remembered, that he was still standing right behind her, so she nearly jumped to make space for him to enter as well. “If you don’t like it we can look for another room.” He offered skeptical.

“Gosh no!” Valkyrie yelped hasty. “I like it, much even. I just felt like I traveled through time for a moment.” Her confession made her blush slightly. It reminded herself of the big age-gap between her and everyone else she called a friend. The Hotelier pulled his eyebrows up in a puzzled frown. “I guess that makes some sense. Most guests, that check in here, still know this kind of furniture from their own past. I rarely have guests that are younger than at least a century.” He admitted as he strode through the room to close the curtains. It was pitch dark outside anyways. “Make yourself comfortable and try to get some sleep.” He checked the clock on the bedside-table “It’s nearly five in the morning, after all. Towels are in the bathroom drawers, as well as everything else you could need. If you need more pillows or blankets just tell me. Feel free to stay as long as you need to, but remember: no fights with other guests! Everyone has a right to be here, the hotel is neutral ground.” He looked at her pointedly. She was Skulduggery’s partner after all. He can barely remember a time, at which Skulduggery didn’t start some trouble. She nodded, and got out of her coat. Shudder left the room. As he was about to pull the door shut behind him, he froze for a second and a dark chuckle stole itself from his lips. Valkyrie didn’t miss it. “What is it?” she asked a little confused. To see Shudder laugh that carefree, was a rare sight. “Do I still have something stuck in my hair or anything?” her face transformed into a frown. Shudder laughed. “No, but if you wouldn’t look so worn out, you would suite the room quite well with that dress you wear.”


	3. Not a conversation, I expected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes sorry, not so much actions yet, but we are getting there. Please note: I wrote the first 6 chapters or so in one go.

* * *

The following start of the day was only a few hours away, when Valkyrie and Shudder finally got some sleep. Since nothing was up on the Agenda, Valkyrie took the freedom to sleep in and hopefully avoid a possible hangover by sleep. But half past eleven, she couldn’t lay still anymore. She sat up in bed, threw the thick blanket away and instantly regretted her decisions. Her hair felt like it stuck to her head, her throat was sore, her eyes didn’t seem to get any more open and her head had a little drum inside of it. She groaned. Maybe a shower would do. She groaned again. Damn, she had no clothes or anything with her….. this made a shower even more necessary. Without any grace or energy she got out of the bed, once more admiring the foreign room she was in. Two steps towards the little bathroom, and with a loud thud she laid flat on the ground. “God damn it….what…” she did stumble over a bag right in front of the door and she did recognize the worn out leather bag. It was one of Skulduggery’s. Without bothering to get up she just pulled herself in a sitting position and inspected it. Inside was her own toothbrush from his place, some of her clothes, the loose shirt and Shorts she wore to sleep and her black clothes from ghastly. She looked around the room and also saw her boots and simple sport shoes sat next to the door. A big smile spread on her face. Leave it to Skulduggery to think of everything. She remembered something, and with mild panic started to dig through the clothes in her bag. Ah! There it was, buried beneath all her stuff, laid a tiny stuffed teddy bear. “Oh you are the best Skul.” She whispered to herself as she pulled it out of the bag and got up to put it onto her bed.

* * *

After a shower and changing into new clothes Valkyrie felt a lot better and fresher, just her limbs and her Head still felt slow and stiff. She took a second try to find the right way downstairs. As she wandered through the hallway into the foyer and lounge area, she was a bit lost about what to do here and where they even were now. Unlike last night, there were some people scattered in the different sitting areas now. She looked around until she caught sight of Shudder talking to someone, before he went back behind his counter. Valkyrie approach him a little unsure. “Good Morning.” she greeted him as he looked up to meet her. “Good morning. How are you feeling after your little adventure?” he asked with a witty little smile, as he sorted some papers and then much to Valkyrie’s disbelief pulled out a keyboard and typed something into his computer. She didn’t expect Shudder of all people to make use of modern technology…but then again, they all had smartphones….so why not a computer. Still it baffled her. She watched his fingers move over the keys as she answered. “I am….okay. I think. Sorry again for…..well everything.” Just as her gaze moved upwards and met his, she could see that he had dark circles under his eyes as well and flinched nearly unnoticeable. “You didn’t get a lot of sleep because of me, did you?” She could feel the guilt sinking in, but he intervened. “Don’t worry, I had nights with no sleep just because Saracen wouldn’t stop talking about some old stories. Two hours are fine with me and it is part of the job. Do you want to eat something? Breakfast is over, and we serve no Lunch here, but I told Mariam to save something for you.” He offered.  
Valkyrie looked up at him confused. “Who is Mariam?” she asked in utter disbelief. Shudder tilted his head slightly, just the way Skulduggery does sometimes. “She works in the kitchen, sometimes when we have a lot of guests. The hotel isn’t all that big, but at times some extra help is welcome.” He explained. “Come with me.” He said as he put a little sign on the counter that said ‘ring, if you need help’ next to it was an old-fashioned bell. He opened the counter for her and she slipped through. Together they entered the little kitchen behind it. Valkyrie only remember blurry, that she already was here last night. Shudder gestured towards the little table, where a tray with two croissants, some marmalade, and a few fruits was sitting. He filled two cups with some steaming liquid and Valkyrie could smell the aroma of hot coffee. “Milk?” he asked and Val blinked. “I guess…” she answered a little overwhelmed. “You guess?” Shudder blinked back towards her. “Well….I usually don’t drink coffee….so, I guess milk is fine?” she answered and it sounded more like a question. Shudder put down the pot. “I can make some tea, if…” Valkyrie cut him off. “No no no, coffee is just fine!” she had a talent for appearing ungrateful for his effort, it seemed. “As you wish” he put the mug in front of her and poured some milk in it. With the second one in his own Hand he sat across from her on the other chair and inhaled the steam. Valkyries laugher caught his attention, as he just started to relax. “Sorry, sorry I just realized that I am not even used to someone having breakfast with me anymore. Skul doesn’t eat and all.” She giggled. It felt so alien that someone sat with her for breakfast. But her laugher turned bitter soon enough, as she remembered that she should have used more of those occasions with her family, when she still had the chance to do so. “I take it you feel lonely these days, am I correct?” Anton asked, not missing the change of emotions. Still, this wasn’t exactly his terrain. He wondered how Skulduggery handled such situations, he wasn’t exactly a sensitive kind of guy either. But he always seems to know what’s up inside other People’s heads – especially in Valkyrie’s. Said girl just put some marmalade on one of the croissants as she thought about his question. “You could say so. It’s just I didn’t really even think about moving out of my family’s home, and then it happened so sudden….and there isn’t even the chance of just calling them when I miss them. Instead I have this big empty house…. I mean it is Christmas soon and I don’t even know for whom I should decorate the house. It’s just empty.” She took a bite, then continued “And as you said, if I stay at Skulduggery’s place it is as if we never stop working…. Which is fine I like working with him, but I guess I don’t want to disappoint him, whenever he forgets that I actually need food and sleep and breaks, unlike him.” Anton nodded and let out a sigh “Yes, I know how that is. He just forgets sometimes. You can’t really hold it against him though, he’s longer as he is now, than he was actually alive. I guess that’s also why he tends to forget that we are getting older. He chased us up this mountain on the mission to get back the engineer, as if we still were young men.” Shudder pondered and stopped when he saw Valkyrie once more staring at him with a puzzled face. “What? Did I say something wrong there?” he asked worried, but then Val laughed once more. “no, no I just wouldn’t have taken you for someone who gossips like that!” Now he laughed as well. “It’s no gossip it’s just…. Showing you that we all have our little issues with one another. The point is we deal with them.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Yes you are right.” She agreed with him. “So… he was here this morning?” with a gesture she pointed at her fresh clothes.

Anton nodded “Yeah, as always he thought ahead. He will pick you up later, when you have to be at the sanctuary. Remember to take your Key with you, when you leave the hotel. If you plan to come back home after midnight, we probably will be in…” he pulled out a used looking pocket-watch, flipped it open and looked at it. “…. In Siberia, near Jakutsk. So unless you want Fletcher to get you back here, you will need it.” Valkyrie pulled a grimace at the mentioned name. “I doubt he ever was in Siberia…..why there?” she asked. She didn’t know the hotel traveled that far, she also didn’t know that she could get access to it with a key. She never actually questioned how the hotel worked, but thinking about it, there had to be some kinds of backdoors. How else would Shudder ever get to any meeting with them in time. This new information actually made her feel surprised about her own lack of interest so far. “Why not?” was Anton’s answer. “I could determine our next goal, but I tend not to. The hotel just appears wherever. As long as I know beforehand, I don’t mind.”

“Wow….I confess, I never really questioned how the hotel works.” She admitted and it felt strange. She never had to point out her own logical shortcomings with Skulduggery, because he did it for her. “do you take care of the whole thing yourself?” another thing, Valkyrie never was curious about before. Shudder however nearly chocked on his coffee. “Hell No! I could never. There are two women that help cleaning and preparing the rooms, Tullia and Gloria. And there is Mariam, I already told you about, even though she only helps out occasionally. There is also Eric, who pretty much helps with everything. He has the Counter sometimes, fixes things, helps me with the accounting and even runs the hotel, when I am out and about on suicidal missions with you guys.” Valkyrie forgot to chew, while listening. She never would have taken Shudder for such a business-man with employees and all there is to it. But yes, of course, it made so much more sense, than him actually running the whole thing as a one-man project. The Hotel wasn’t big, it only got 18 rooms after all, but still probably too much for one Person to manage.


	4. Not the door, I was to open

After breakfast Valkyrie left Shudder to his work, and since it was already mid-day she didn’t have to wait long until Skulduggery stayed true to his word and picked her up. Despite picking on her for last night’s events and making fun of the fact that she actually felt hungover, he indeed took it easy for her benefit today. After the meeting with China at the sanctuary, they spend a few hours searching through the archives and libraries to gather some information on their newest target. Easy work for a day like this. He also didn’t push the topic of her devastating date with fletcher, even though she could tell knowing the details turned him pretty irritated last night. She was thankful for him letting the topic slip. In younger years she might would have mistaken his behavior for a lack of interest, but she knew better now.

Later that day they actually found the contacts of someone who could provide the information they needed. Of course, said contact wasn’t excited to meet them, so it ended up in a chase. Skulduggery did most the work, while her stamina wasn’t really on top of the game today. She made up for it during the bad cop, good cop play, which means she let Skulduggery be the bad cop.

They got what they needed and the loud rumble of Valkyries stomachs reminded Skulduggery that his Partner could do with a break and something to eat. It was already dark at this point, and as they drove back towards roarhaven, snow started to dance silently in front of the Bentley. It made Valkyrie feel grumpy. Snow tried to wake all those warm Christmas-feeling, and she had no space for them in her emotional chaos right now.

“So? How was your first day at Anton’s?” Skulduggery asked to obviously break this moody silence. Valkyries Head leaned against the cool window and a tiny thud indicated, that it wasn’t as comfortable as it looked, whenever they hit a bump on the road. “It’s….nice…. I mean I only slept there and had some breakfast and then you already kidnapped me, so I can’t tell much. Thanks for the clothes by the way…..and the teddy.”

His head turned slightly towards her, eye sockets probably still on the road. “You would have been so lost without me thinking ahead of your dilemma.” He praised himself. “Don’t put your head against the window, I have to clean it later. All your human, feminine hair products ruin those stainless clean windows!” Valkyrie rolled her eyes in faked annoyance, but sat up straight anyway. She would never argue about the Bentley-rules. “Did you see him today at all?” Skulduggery asked, usually his friend was quite good at busing himself, but he expected him to make an exception for Valkyrie. Much to his approval, she nodded. “yeah, he had some coffee with me while I ate.” Now Skulduggery head turned completely towards her. “You drank coffee? You always complain when I offer to buy you coffee. And then I have to deal with you being tired.” His eyes went back to the road. Valkyrie giggled. “I know, I know. But I didn’t want to turn down his hospitality.”

“So that means, the no-coffee-rule is officially broken now, and I can bring up the topic again if it is getting late?” he put it as a question, but Val knew there was no arguing. “Suuuure” she groaned, still amusement in her voice.

Back at the Sanctuary, Valkyrie picked up some food at the cafeteria and they both took place at an empty table. They had free choice, they were the only ones there. No one wanted to stay longer than necessary at the Sanctuary, when they could spend time with their loved once before Christmas. The only ones who seemingly didn’t give a damn about the season were the two of them and China herself.

“So let’s conclude what we’ve got.” Skulduggery started, while Val took a big bite from her egg and ham Sandwich. “Someone stole Nye’s documents right from the sanctuary and paid it a visit in it’s cell, but did neither free nor kill it. Whoever it was must have something to either scare or deal with Nye, since he won’t tell who it was. So we……. You’ve got some egg on your chest……how can you be such a messy eater. You do it several times every day. One could be thinking, that you would get better with it at some point.” Valkyrie swallowed her bite, picked the egg off her clothes and looked angrily at her Partner. “Continue!” she hissed and took another bite. She was too hungry and tired to start an argument. “….yes…..so we could safely assume, that someone tries to continue some of Nye’s Projects, without wanting him to take part in it.” He finished his debriefing. Valkyrie could see, that there was more he wanted to say, but he obviously tried to give her the chance to contribute to this conversation, so she put down her food and took the hint. “ The right questions to ask would therefore be: Why do they not want Nyes participation in it, and which open Project is it, that they are interested in?” much to her approval Skulduggery nodded in agreement. “Good, maybe you aren’t a clean eater, but you become a better detective from day to day.” He praised and Valkyrie found herself smiling, and kicking his leg under the table at the same time.

It was nearly half past twelve, when they finished their day. “So do you know how you get back to the hotel?” Skulduggery asked as he put his hat back on his skull and led the way through the Sanctuary’s corridors. Valkyrie stopped and pulled the golden key out of her pocket. She held it up in the air in triumph. “Nope, but I got my key!” she announced, as if this alone was the greatest accomplishment of the week. It maybe even was – she already locked herself out of the mansion several times. Luckily she knew how to open locks now. “I am so proud of you. You have a bright future ahead.” The skeleton detective retorted and took the key from her. “Come on I’ll show you.” He stepped towards the nearest door and pulled it shut in front of them. “You take it, hold it in front of any keyhole….” He did as he explained, and Valkyrie could see how the key slowly turned into something more liquid and shapeshifted into another kind of key, one that perfectly fit into the keyhole in front of it. Skulduggery pushed the key in, turned it in it’s lock an pushed the door open again. Valkyrie stared into the foyer of the midnight hotel and then back to Skulduggery. “wicked!” she announced. “Why do we never use this way to get to the hotel?” she asked, full of awe for the kind of magic just witnessed. “Because…” Skul countered “….there are only 18 key to the 18 rooms. Not one more. So don’t lose it. Anton will have your head if you do. You are lucky he doesn’t know about your habit to loose keys yet.” He pulled the key out of it’s hole again, and it shifted back to it’s original form, then he put it back in her hand. “Good night Val, I’ll see you in the morning. We will have to meet with the others and let them know, what is going on.” He tapped his hat, and turned on his heel towards the Sanctuary’s exit. Valkyrie watched him leaving. All the teasing and all the exhaustion included, she just could feel how much he cared for her. And this was the closest she got towards Christmas-feelings. But it was okay, it was enough to make her forget about her family for a few moments during the day. She turned around, stepped through the door and it shut behind her.

Suddenly the chilly air of the sanctuary was replaced with the warm, cozy atmosphere of the hotel and she had to get out of her jacket instantly. They were in Siberia, but still it was warm here. No one was at the foyer and only a few dim lights were shining. She had to admit, it felt nothing like coming home. But it never did at the mansion as well. Not the way it felt like, when she was sneaking back into her room through the window, back then. Still she took her jacket over one of her arms and stretched her neck slightly, slowly exhaled, closed her eyes for a second and tried to get rid of all the days adrenaline and stress. It only worked a little bit. Her feet carried her past the counter and the sitting area towards the stairs. Thick carpet on each step swallowed the sound of her shoes. When she reached the first floor, she stopped for a moment to remember in which direction she had to turn. She turned right and walked on. After only 2 passed doors she realized it was the wrong direction, because the numbers on the doors decreased from 05 to 04 and 03. Just as she was about to turn back around, music reached her ears and she stood still. Trying to figure out where the music came from she followed it towards the end of the corridor. Room 01. Now that she stood directly in front of said door, she could hear something that sounded like classical violines mixed with something modern. She couldn’t quite name it, but she liked it. For a few Seconds she just stood there and listened, until another door opened. She barely bit back a yelp and turned around startled. A woman, seemingly Chinas age – but you never knew with them – walked out of room 03 and froze as she saw Valkyrie. She was pretty, her red hair reached down to her chin and fell in old-fashioned waves, her eyes were dark and her lipstick matched her hair as well as her blouse. The expression she wore was at first surprised, then turned into a warm, nice smile, as she looked at Valkyrie. “Do you need something from the Owner? I think he’s still awake.” She gave her a wink and then moved on her own way, towards the stairs. Valkyrie was so startled she didn’t even try to answer or move. The woman probably got the impression, that Valkyrie wasn’t in full control of her brain-functions. A hot burning sensation spread through her cheeks, and she could literally feel how the awkward blush colored her face red. So this was Shudders own room, then. She didn’t know. And now she just realized she stood at Shudders door and ….. and what …. Stalked his taste of music? She was such weirdo.

Pretty much ashamed she hurried back in the other direction towards her own room. As fast as possible she shut the door behind herself and tried to forget what just happened.


	5. Not the reaction, I should savor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit longer... but i just put like 30000 word in one document and now guess, where a chapter should start and end. Also I like this one because a certain someone is getting punched in the face. You can#t help it if yu don't like certain characters, right? But you can punch them in your own fics - victory!

* * *

The next morning came faster than expected, as a firm knock on the door woke her from a very bizarre dream. Her eyes fluttered open, but it stayed dark as a pillow was covering her head. She got up on her elbows, face downwards, pillow falling off the bed and without thinking answered the know with a sleepy “Yeah?”. The doorhandle pushed downwards and it swung open. Shudder stepped inside, opened his mouth to say something, but stopped open-mouthed as he took in the unexpected sight. Valkyrie’s hair was a messy muddle, the loose grey shirt she wore was half-way slipping down one shoulder, sleep still was written all over her face and she got nearly lost in the big bed. This was simply no comparison to the young, energetic woman he knew from their missions. When they were in the field Valkyrie always was one of the first to rise and she always went from 0 to 100 in like no time. Dexter was even annoyed by her morning-energy.

“Wow…. When did you turn into a late riser?” Shudder said, much to his own surprise, instead of the friendly and professional good morning he planned to share. He cleared his throat. “Sorry, I meant to wake you, since our all favored Detective called for a meeting. I thought you might want to have some breakfast with me before we have to leave? It’s still early and official breakfast won’t be served until we have to leave.” Shudder was somewhat proud of himself, for picking up the hint, that she liked not having to eat alone, and even remembered it at this occasion. However, this was a little bit too much information for Valkyries still sleepy brain. She just mumbled something that sounded vaguely like acceptance and rubbed her eyes. “Alright, in 10….” He reconsidered as he watched Valkyrie checking the clock. “….20 minutes, room 01. We have to meet the others in one hour.” With some sympathy and also some guilt for waking her, he closed the door quietly as he left the room and went downstair light-footed to prepare some breakfast for the two of them. What a change of personality there was between combat-ready-Valkyrie and everyday-life-Valkyrie. No wonder Skulduggery had fun picking on her.

Valkyrie fell back on the mattress and let out a frustrated moan as she pulled the blanket back over her head. She was so deep in her slumber, that she didn’t know where she was or what time it might be, when shudder woke her. For a moment she even forgot she stayed at the hotel and thought Skulduggery was waking her. It took her a few more moments to process what Shudder said to her. Meeting….Breakfast…..in his room? With a jolt she sat up as she remembered the awkward moment last night. Well he didn’t know. So everything was fine. She just hoped the pretty Woman from 03 won’t tell him.

It took her only a few minutes to get up and ready for the day, despite the tiredness, that just wouldn’t leave her. But getting hurried out the door by Skulduggery several mornings for the past years, let her develop quite a talent for getting ready without being mentally present. Only 18 Minutes later she stepped in front of room 01 and knocked, now more awake and aware. The door got opened, and instead of Shudder, there was a young pretty girl with toned skin, black curls and eyes so dark, they seemed black. She wore black pants and a white blouse. She looked as if she was her age, maybe even younger? “Good morning, dear. Don’t let me stop you, come in.” she stepped aside to let Valkyrie in and looked over her shoulder back to Shudder. “I will try to reach Eric then. Have a nice day.” With a bright smile she switched places with Val and closed the door, leaving the two dead men alone in the room. “Oh wow….” Valkyrie said and turned around to look at the now closed door once more. “…who?....” she turned around to shudder, who was sitting at a similar leather chair to the ones in her room, right in front of the window and held a newspaper in his hands. But she didn’t finish her question as her sight fell behind shudder. Another “Woah!” left her lips and she moved over to him, to look out the window. Beneath the hotel was an endless blanket of thick snow and ice. Everything around them was white and untouched. “This is…..awesome.” she whispered in awe. Shudder put down his newspaper and let Valkyrie admire the view. “You did not look out of the window once, since you got back here, did you?” he asked a little bit shocked. But he could quite easily imagine, that she just fell into her bed last night. He remembered well, how exhausting days with Skulduggery could be. “Coffee or tea?” he asked and the young woman turned around, finally able to take her eyes off the scenery. She sat down on the other chair, the table between them was completely filled with food and two steaming pots – tea and coffee- “Actually, coffee.” She gave him a bright smile. “So it wasn’t completely awful yesterday?” Shudder said amused. “I can’t even begin to imagine how you survived that long without coffee.” He filled her cup and refilled his own. “No it wasn’t, in fact I think it was exactly what I needed.” She thanked him for the coffee and didn’t hesitate to fill her plate with some of the food. “So who was the girl?” she asked curiously. Shudder already had his newspaper back in one hand, as he held his coffee in the other. “This is Tullia, one of the housekeepers, I told you about.” He didn’t elaborate the topic anymore, obviously focused on some of the articles. Val did not want to disturb him, she probably already blew his morning routine anyway. Her gaze wandered through the room as she ate. Suddenly she became very aware of the fact, that this was Shudder’s actual home. The room was a lot bigger than the one she stayed in. The décor was mainly held in dark green colors. There were a lot of old photographs on the wall next to the door. Everything looked ancient and elegant and at the same time very homely. And just now she noticed the smell, it tickled her nose it smelled of a mixture of wood polish, coffee and something else….something she smelled before. Her brain was working hard to figure out what it might could be, but she just couldn’t place it. The rustle of the newspaper pulled her attention back as Shudder put it down and shook his head irritated. “You would think they would stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again.” Valkyries eyes flickered over the newspaper, that now laid on the table, to see what got Shudder so annoyed, but she couldn’t make out a single thing. “Wait, is that a Russian newspaper?” she asked shocked. Shudder nodded as he filled his plate. “it’s from the Russian sanctuary. They just declared – once again – to stop their collaboration with the joint scientific department of some of the sanctuaries and instead focus on their own research-programs. Because that worked out so well the last time.”

Valkyrie didn’t know, that shudder paid so much attention to things like that – she never thought about it. To her it only matters what happened at their own sanctuary, if anything else was important, Skulduggery would tell her…..she never saw Skulduggery read any foreign newspapers, but he always was informed about things that go on elsewhere. Maybe she should start to pay more attention to these things as well? But then again, she couldn’t ready Cyrillic. She also couldn’t speak a single word French. Damn, she remembered when they were in France and all the dead men just switched from English to French as if they never spoke any other language. She looked at the Man across the table. “So you speak French, Russian and English…” she pointed out. He just shrugged. “live 100 years longer and you probably will too.” Was his reply. “I think Saracen is fluent in about 42 languages and the monster hunters get close to that as well. Skulduggery, me and the others only know the most common ones.” Suddenly Valkyrie felt very insecure about her over all educational level. She barely could greet someone in German and was able to count to ten in Spanish. “So do you know what Skulduggery wants? I guess there is more to your current case than just some stolen papers, if he involves all of us?” Shudder asked with mild curiosity. Valkyrie pulled some fingers through her hair, a habit when she remembered something that made feel frustrated. “Yeah….we have some clues, that something bigger is going on and its probably getting out of hand quickly. So he thought it would be the best to brief you guys and get all the help we can get.”

That was enough to satisfy his curiosity for now, and they finished their breakfast with some easy chatter about their friends and the benefits of leather gloves. Anyone who would have listened to them, could have told, that both weren’t all that confident with having to keep a conversation going.

As they were done, Shudder asked Tullia to clean the table and Valkyrie got her staff from her room, then met Shudder at the foyer. “Ready to go?” he asked and she nodded. “How do we get there now?” a questioning expression on her face, but she couldn’t wait to figure out another of the hotels mysteries. Shudder told her to follow him, as he opened an inconspicuous looking door next to the counter. Cold air hit their faces and he switched up a light switch. The lights made a clicking noise and flickered a few times, before they came to life and revealed stone-stairs that led into a basement. Shudder had to duck a little bit to not hit his head at the ceiling. He stepped down a few steps, the only way to keep hold was a rope fixed at the wall next to them. He held a hand out for her, to give her something more solid to hold onto. The stairs weren’t really even. One was higher than the other and the next one was shorter than the one before. This basement must have been really old. She thanked him and took his hand even though she was sure the rope would have been good enough. “watch out for your head.” He warned her and led the way downwards. The door closed behind them. As they reached the end of the stairs, they stood in a typically dark, slightly wet basement. There were some Barrels, a few shelves with wine bottle in them and, adding to Valkyries excitement, a door with something that looked like a lottery wheel on it. They stepped closer to the door. On each of the Wheel’s colored fields was a little picture of something. One had a Needle with some yarn on it, another one a book, one had a gravestone on it and another one a crown. Shudder turned the wheel until the little needle pointed at the crown. Then he opened the door. “Here we are.” He announced and Valkyrie could see a snowy street in front of them. Across that stress was the entrance to the sanctuary. She stepped through the door, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. Shudder followed behind her and as she turned around, she could see, that they were seemingly leaving one of the Apartment buildings across the sanctuary. “This is so cool!” Valkyrie breathed and smiled at shudder full of joy. It just made her happy, that there still was new magic to discover and wonder about. “How does it work?” she asked, and for a moment it felt like when she bugged Skulduggery to show her how his newest tricks work. Shudder pulled the Collar of his coat up, to keep the Wind off his neck, before he answered. “It’s a mixture of teleportation magic and symbol magic. However, since Fletcher is the last teleporter, I can only hope it won’t break any time soon. There is no one left alive, who is able to fix the hotels set up.” He frowned a little bit, as he checked the street for any cars and then started crossing it with Valkyrie following.

They entered the sanctuary and the administrator led them to one of the conference rooms. Waiting there were Skulduggery, Saracen and Dexter. As soon as they entered, Valkyrie took her place right besides Skulduggery, he handed her a ‘to-go’ mug filled with tea as if it was the most obvious thing to do and Valkyrie took it with a thanks without any questions. The routine of the two of them felt so natural that no one even dared to ask questions. “Do you already regret taking her in, Anton?” Skulduggery asked with a mean smile in his voice and instantly earned a punch to his upper arm by Valkyrie. Shudder just waved the question off and instead turned his attention towards the other two men. “How are you? I saw your picture in the newspaper Dexter. Just why did you have to start an argument with the German sanctuary and get arrested?”

Dexter put on a toothpaste-smile. “The picture looks bad-ass, right? I thought about having it framed.” He replied, ignoring the ‘getting arrested’ part of the question. The Conversation between the five people in the room went on like that until the Monster Hunters and Fletcher just appeared out of nowhere and greeted them.

Valkyrie looked up and their eyes met. Fletcher instantly looked away, at the ceiling. And Valkyrie at the floor. Both let out a rather uncomfortable and silent “Hi”. And then kept on ignoring each other and everything else in awkward silence.

Skulduggery took the word. “So now that we are all here. Let’s get to our agenda for today. First of all ….” Without any warning or time to react, Skulduggerie’s gloved fist smashed into Fletchers Jawline. The teleporter tumbled backwards, let out a pained noise and was rubbing his face as he regained balance. At once Valkyrie was at Skulduggerie’s side and clung to his arm to hold him back. The detective let his knuckles crackle but didn’t try to throw any more punches. “God Damn, Skul! What the heck?” Dexter let out as all of the surrounding people took some distance, startled as they were by this action. “Now that this is settled, let’s move on to the actual topic.” Was all Skulduggery said to it. Donegan and Gracious just helped Fletcher up and snickered. “That was pointedly.” Gracious said as he patted Fletchers shoulder. “I told you, he would punch you.” Donegan added. “Fuck that hurt” was all Fletcher could mumble at this point, once he regained some of his composure he looked at Valkyrie “Damn Vally, you told him?” he asked a little sulky. Valkyrie, who felt sorry for him up until now, now just crossed her arms in front of her chest and countered just as sassy. “and you told THEM. So we are even now I’d say.”

For Saracen it was rather rare to be the one, who didn’t know what was going on. So he just had to ask. “Does anyone care to share with me, what this is about?” he looked at different faces in turns until Shudder added to the question “I guess this is about past night?”.  
Valkyries face turned crimson red as she looked away and Fletcher looked as if he’d prefer to vanish in thin air. Skulduggery fixed his tie. “Seems like our young friend, Fletcher, didn’t quite understand the meaning of ‘no’ when he was confronted with it.” Skulduggery answered and obviously wanted to leave it at that. However Fletcher felt the need to defend himself. “I am sorry, yeah? But this is between Vally and me. It’s none of your business. I mean come on, we were both drunk and it was a date after all.” Valkyrie chose to say nothing and avoid everyone’s eyes. “And it’s not like anything happened. She broke my toes with her heels and I dropped her off at the hotel, just as she wanted. I don’t see why you have to get involved, now.” He complained. Valkyrie had to admit he was right, but she still couldn’t stop thinking that it was very cool of Skulduggery to bring the point across this way. The detective looked at the young teleporter. “I know, and don’t worry. We all were young and did stupid stuff like that at some point. But she’s my partner, and the point had to be made.” He closed the topic and Fletcher didn’t even talk back. No one did. Everyone else just seemed to find the situation rather amusing, as Gracious put an arm around Fletcher’s shoulders and told him, how he will tell this story to his grandchildren someday. Valkyrie looked up and unintended met Shudders gaze. He had a frown on his face and looked at Valkyrie and Skulduggery with a puzzled expression. What was he brooding about? This was, while being rather embarrassing, still somehow heartwarming. Every seemed to take interest in each other after all.

Everyone calmed down and Skulduggery began to explain what Valkyrie and he found out during the past days. Everyone listened, and Valkyrie could see how their minds already got to work, to see connections, where the two of them couldn’t see any so far. “Whatever it is they are working on, coming from Nye’s desk it most likely should be stopped before it’s ready for use. They will need material and maybe someone with experience on medical and / or scientific topics. So some of you have to go to all the common places and contacts and find out who is recruiting and getting the black market rolling. The rest of us needs to pay a visit to Nye and figure out what they spoke about and why it isn’t dead or free, yet.” The Detective summed up. It was Saracen who was the first to speak. “Nye’s in a Russian prison, so Fletcher is assigned to team Nye. Picking up Information, is your thing, Skul, so you should start for team black market. “ His eyes wandered over the group. “Same goes for Donegan and Gracious, actually. Leaves me, Anton, Dexter and Vally for Fletcher.” He concluded and crossed his arms. “Actually…” Dexter interrupted “…I think I should go with Skulduggery. Those people aren’t really fans of questioning games. It could be good to have some back up.” Skulduggery tilted his head. “That’s true, but depending on what Nye is telling us, we might have to fight our way out of the Prison with some force. Obviously Skulduggery would have preferred to be present for that, but Anton pulled that idea out of the Detective’s head with his following statement. “I am with them, so I think fighting our way out should not be a problem. And in any case we also have Fletcher to get out as fast as a blink.” There was no arguing this, and Skullduggery nodded. “Okay then our teams are set.” He agreed a little rough. “Let’s tell China what we are up to and then we get started. The sooner we get this solved, the better.”


	6. Not the defeat, I wanted to happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Action! Finally some fighting action! I never wrote a fighting scene before - I hope you enjoy it though!

* * *

Just a little over a half hour later, Saracen, Anton, Fletcher and Valkyrie stood in the middle of nowhere in Russia. The only visible Structure around, was something that looked like a vacant entry to an old bunker. Anton mumbled something unrecognizable, but Valkyrie imagined he was complaining about the weather. A harsh icy wind was blowing around them, whipping her hair around and letting the cold bite into her skin. Saracen put an arm Around Valkyries shoulders and pulled her firmly to his side. “Don’t look so sulky. This is the smell of adventure!” he took in a deep breath and released her. Clearly he was the only one being excited about the task ahead. Fletcher picked up some of the snow and put it at his face, right where Skulduggery punched him. There was a noticeable bruise growing. Valkyrie still felt a little sorry for him. It was as much her fault as his after all. “Let’s get moving and inside!” Shudder demanded. “For someone who started his morning in Siberia, you are pretty grumpy about the local weather.” Valkyrie commented and earned a serious and cold stare from the Hotelier. “I didn’t have to be outside this morning. It’s a nice view when you are inside. You don’t have to get burned to enjoy a nice fire, do you?”

They went through the little entry. The iron gate let out a squeaking noise as it got pushed out of the way. Sitting inside was an old man, who didn’t even look up. He also didn’t say anything. He just waited for them to say something. “Grand Mage Sorrows sends us.” Shudder offered in fluent Russian and Valkyrie couldn’t help but look at him with some admiration. He sounded pretty cool that way. Somehow it suited him even better than English. “Ah” was all the old man replied, before he kicked the floor twice. Suddenly the floor started to move….or the walls? It took Fletcher and Valkyrie a few moments to realize, that the whole room was an elevator and they were moving downwards. As they reached what appeared to be the ground-floor, a slender woman in a pinstripe costume and a clipboard in her hands already awaited them. She spoke English, but had a thick accent. “Welcome in _Zheleznyye vorota_ “ she greeted them. “Grand Mage Sorrows informed us about your spontaneous visit here. You want to interview Prisoner 8392, Nye, is that correct?” she looked up, her face was impossible to read, she just looked very strict. If it wasn’t for that, she might have been a beautiful young woman. But her voice turned rather sharp. “All of you?” Saracen nodded and put all his charm into explaining to her why all four of them were required in this particular situation. He made up a really nice story, but it didn’t help. “I am sorry, but I can’t let any more than two of you into our interview-area.” She insisted and her icy voice made clear, that there was no way of convincing her otherwise. All four looked at each other, but it were Saracen and Anton who appeared to have some kind of wordless conversation, only by a few hand signs and raised eyebrows. “Okay me, and miss Cain will be the lucky ones then.” Saracen announced. “Very well then, follow me. Your friends can wait at the cafeteria for visitors and staff.” She was as unaffected by both charm and diplomacy, as a rock.

Anton and Fletcher followed one of the guards, while Saracen and Valkyrie followed miss no-bullshit into a little room with a table and three chairs, very similar to the questioning rooms they had at their own sanctuary. The Woman stopped at the door, as the two of them already entered. “I will order the guards to escort Nye to you and wait here at the door in case of emergency. Please notice that we can’t have you speak to the prisoners for more than 15 Minutes. And I have to confiscate your weapons and the contents of your pockets. We have to minimize the chance for prisoners to acquire anything they might could use to harm themselves or others.” Valkyrie let out some air between gritted teeth. This woman was like a robot. Valkyrie shot a look towards Saracen, not quite sure if she should follow those instructions or not. But Saracen already was reaching for his back pockets to reveal two daggers and something that looked shockingly like a grenade. He mumbled something that sounded like some kind of complaint, but handed all of his belongings over. So Valkyrie did the same, She took the staff from her back and handed it over. Both the Woman and Saracen looked at her expectantly and waited. A few strange seconds passed until Valkyrie hissed “what? That’s all!” The Woman just accepted this outburst and turned around. “You will get everything back once you leave. Please wait here for a moment” With that she walked away, two guards following her. Saracen however looked down at her with speechless surprise on his face. “You came here with only a wooden staff, are you serious?” he asked with this kind of I-can’t-believe-it-laugher. Valkyrie shot him a defiant glare. “So what? I never take any other weapons with me….it’s all I need. And was that actually a grenade you handed over?” He just shrugged his shoulders in reply, went to one of the chairs, let himself fall onto it and put his feet on the table. “Yeah, you never know what they will be good for.” Valkyrie shook her head and laughed. It just never got boring with the dead men. “One of the walls is a one-way-window.” He announced in lower voice, “pretty sure everything that is said in this room will be overheard and recorded. And did you notice? There are sigils at the ceiling – we can’t use any magic.” Now he was whispering. Valkyrie leaned at the wall behind him and waited until Nye got escorted to them. Two guards guided it into the room. It’s hands were restrained and it didn’t care to take a seat, since those chairs clearly weren’t any comfortable for it’s species. The guards assured, that they would wait just behind the door, and left the room. Nye looked at them and a mad smile spread over it’s face. “Ahhhh my favorite research-subject. What brings you here? I doubt you are here to deliver a new job-offer.” It laughed. Saracen ignored Nye’s words and instead repositioned himself, so that he could lean his elbows on the table and look straight into Nyes small eyes. “We’ve heard you got some visitors a few days ago.” He offered and hoped Nye would just for once cause no problems and talk. Of Course this wasn’t what happened, but something did happen. It’s face turned serious and the laugher vanished. “How do you know?” it asked barely audible. Valkyrie answered. “You know we have our own informants. Tell us what they wanted from you.” Something Valkyrie never saw before on Nyes face appeared – fear. It was scared of something. “So you are here to figure out, what is going on. I have the information you need, but where is my benefit in telling you?” it hissed, as it leaned in close to them, now only whispering. Saracen ignored his words once more and instead pressed another question forward. “How did they get to you? They were obviously no official visitors, but somehow managed to not get noticed by the guards. How?” he asked and his voice sounded hectic, as if he just had a thought and sleeked confirmation. Valkyrie frowned and tried to figure out what Saracen knew all of a sudden. “What is it? Why are we whispering now?” she asked annoyed. Nye looked at her, there was a mixture of panic and hope on it’s face now. Saracen pulled her a little bit closer to both of their heads and whispered. “They let us investigate on a security-breach in their prison without complaints, and then give us a little bit too much faked privacy to talk to Nye. Yet they claim to not having noticed any intruder, while our informants told us otherwise.” Valkyries eyes widened. The people who tried to get the information from Nye, and who’ve stolen his papers were insiders. People who had free access to the prison, and maybe got covered by their sanctuary. That’s why they didn’t have to kill or free Nye, here they had full control of him. And the only reason why they let them speak to Nye, was because they hoped it would tell someone from his own sanctuary more, than he told them. It was a trap and they ran right into it. Saracen didn’t need to say anything else, they probably already were prisoners themselves by now. They would have to fight their way back out and take Nye with them. _Fuck!,_ she mentally cursed. Before anyone of them could get into action a loud explosion echoed through the building, followed by the typical sounds of fighting. “Shudder and Fletcher.” Valkyrie breathed and Saracen got up, urged Valkyrie behind himself towards the wall. “When they get in here, you break the fake wall behind you and get out of here with Nye, you got that?” he whispered and Valkyrie nodded. Nye pushed its body against the wall as well and got ready for the great escape. The fighting noise got wilder and louder and Valkyrie started to worry about Shudder – but right now she had no time for that. The door finally moved open, and as expected there were six guards, behind them the pinstripe woman. “You weren’t nearly as helpful as we hoped. This really wasn’t worth the trouble.” She rebuked them and signaled the guards to arrest them. “I hope you understand, that we have to keep you as guests here, until we finished our work.”

“Don’t think so, lady.” Saracen countered and dashed towards the nearest guard. He grabbed the man and got a hold on his arm, until he managed to sling his free arm around the guards neck. Like that he used the guy as battering ram to attack the next incoming guards. Valkyrie wasted no time and picked up one of the chairs to smash it against the wall. It took her a few tries until the one-way-window started to splinter. Nye helped to break through the wreckage, and they both climbed through the opening. On the other side was a room with a lot of monitors and computers and two men were standing at the far wall. They were scared and tried to shield their faces. Clearly no fighters or guards. Valkyrie looked back, debating if she could help Saracen, but Nye grabbed her collar with his cuffed hands. “Come on, he said we have to leave.” He reminded her, and just passed the scared men. Valkyrie grit her teeth, he was right, but she hated it. For good measurement, Valkyrie did not just pass the two guys, but punched both of them preciously, so that they took a longer time out. They got into a corridor. “This way.” Nye ordered and Valkyrie followed. “Am I helping you to escape? Because it certainly feels the other way around.” She snapped at him. He left it uncommented. Nye could at best walk fast, with his long cuffed arms and long legs, he was not able to run through those halls, but Valkyrie still had to run to keep up with his long strides. Suddenly, before she even could see what was coming their way, something knocked her over, pushed all the air out of her lungs and threw her backwards against a wall. Her head hit the structure and white pain instantly flooded her vision. She fell on her knees and kept laying on the floor for a moment. Nye also got pushed over, and struggled to get back up. Valkyrie couldn’t see anything, her Vision was blurry but she could hear the clicking noise of heels on the stone floor, followed by many pairs of boots. As she finally was able to lift herself up and clear her vision, she could see how some of the guards had Nye pinned down to the floor. Two of them were coming her way and the pinstripe lady just stood there at the end of the corridor, arms crossed, watching them. Valkyrie blinked back some tears, and got to her feet, wavering. “Help me, help me!” Nye screamed, obviously in pain as well. Valkyrie got ready, as one of the guards came charging at her. She let him come, used his own momentum against him, as she grabbed his arm, turned around him and pulled it with her. His Shoulder cracked with a disgusting sound and she knew she had managed to dislocate it. With a kick, he sent him towards his friend who was also coming at her. But instead of catching him, he just pushed his injured comrade aside and threw a punch at Valkyries face. She blocked it with her arm, and tried to kick her knee into his abdomen. But he got a hold on her leg pulled it upwards and twisted it. Her knee turned in absolutely the wrong way and she screamed. Suddenly there was nothing but pain, she couldn’t focus on anything but the burning pain that spread from her leg through her whole body. She just wished he would let go of her leg, so it could bend back. Just as the wall beside them crashed into pieces, did she notice that the guard wasn’t holding her leg anymore, it just didn’t got back to it’s original position. One pained scream after another left her throat. The wall crumbled down and she tried to pull herself out of the way to avoid any of the falling debris. She had no time to recognize it was Shudder’s gist that broke through to them. It raged and hissed and clawed at their opponents. Shudder himself climbed through the broken wall, right after it. He saw Valkyrie on the floor looked at her, then his gaze went to Nye, still pint to the floor and now restrained by several ropes. The Gist attacked the remaining guards with wild fury. It jumped at them, ripped one of them in half and simply bit off another ones head as it pulled the men off of Nye. At the same time Shudder came rushing to Valkyrie. He knelt beside her and tried to calm her down. He didn’t need a second glance to see that her leg was broken. She tried to get up on her own, but just couldn’t. He helped her up, let her lean on him and she held onto him, dug her fingers into his clothes, as if this could reduce the pain that stormed through her body. “come on, we need to get you out of here.”. He had to make a decision. There was no way he could get Valkyrie and Nye out of here, and he didn’t have to think about it, though. He would abandon the missions goal to get Valkyrie out. Skulduggery would do the same – probably. Nye also could see what decision Shudder just took. “No, no! You can’t leave me here. You need me!” he screamed. But Shudder just turned to leave with the injured girl.

“And you think I just watch as you leave?” a feminine voice with thick Russian accent asked calmly. Shudder didn’t see her standing there before and his eyes widened as he saw her now. Before he could send the Gist towards her, a massive Shockwave extended from her, it moved towards them with crazy speed and left a smashed floor and walls behind it. First it rolled over Nye who let out miserable screams, it got rolled over by the pressure. There was no way to run. As it hit Shudder and Valkyrie they got pushed backwards. Shudder lost his grip on Valkyrie and she smashed into the wall once more. He got pressed on the floor and debris flew around his head and hit him on every part of his body, he could not protect. Valkyrie lost her consciousness before it even was over.


	7. Not the burden, I wanted on my shoulders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my personal favorite chapter so far. It's a bizzare situation, and I like those.

* * *

When she slowly awoke again, everything was silent around them. The first thing she was aware of was the pain that still radiated not only from her leg, but also from the back of her head and her spine. But there also was something that numbed the pain a little bit, something that distracted her. It was this smell, this aroma she couldn’t quite place this morning when she was in Shudders room. Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned in pain. “oh thanks, you are awake again. I started to worry.” She heard Shudders Voice from above her. As she looked up and regained some orientation, she figured, that her head was resting on his lap, as he sat on the floor. His hair was messed up and a few strains fell openly into his face, his shirt hung open and parts of his clothes were ripped. The exposed skin displayed dirt, cuts and some bruises. She closed her eyes again. That was it, the smell she couldn’t place, it was his after-shave. Slowly she exhaled and opened her eyes again. “Where are we?” she asked, but her voice was rough and scratchy. “In a nice and cozy cell.” It was Nye’s voice that answered her. She tried to sit up, but Shudder put an arm over her chest and held her in place. “Don’t move. You hit your head pretty hard and we aren’t sure what else got broken besides your knee.” She didn’t have the strength to fight him on that, and some part of her didn’t want to either. This enticing smell of him, that made everything less painful just made her wanting to stay like this. But still she moved her head a tiny bit to look around. Nye’s voice sounded further away, and she was right. He was in a cell across from them. As it seemed Shudder and her were alone in this one. “Where are Saracen and Fletcher?” she asked, panic resonated in her voice. Shudder leaned his head back against the stone wall – he clearly was exhausted and hurt as well. “I don’t know. I didn’t see Saracen, and I told Fletcher to run as soon as we knew it was a trap. He couldn’t teleport down here.” Shudder wished he could have told her any better news, but that simply was the truth. Valkyrie tried not to think of the worst and instead did what Skulduggery taught her to do in such situations. Push the worries aside for now and figure out what to do. “So we got captured, I can’t move, and we need to find a way out of here.” She concluded. Shudder let out a bitter chuckle. With her head on his body, she could feel the rumble of it and somehow it made her nervous in a very improper way, considering their current situation. “you spend too much time with Skulduggery, you know that. Sounds just like him.” Shudder said. “Thanks for the compliment. He never says something as nice to me.” Valkyrie answered.

Anton just shook his head and put a hand on hers. “forget that for a moment. How do you feel?” he asked. “I’ll be fine, just give me a few minutes.” Sarcasm coated her words. “I doubt that.” Came Nye’s voice across the room. “For real Valkyrie.” Shudder pushed the topic. She reconsidered her answer, as she could hear the honest worry in the other dead man’s words. “My head hurts, my neck too and I feel dizzy….. I think I can’t hear on one side.” She confessed. “And my leg hurts….. I can’t tell if it is from the fracture or from the cold though.” Shudders lips were pressed tight together, forming a thin line. He turned his head towards Nye, who was sitting in his cell watching them with a shrug of his shoulders. “I told you, you have to set the leg. Blood circulation probably got messed up with the fracture.”

“What do you say?” Valkyrie asked, now there was just as much worry in her own voice. The doctor answered somewhat gleeful. “What I mean is, it isn’t exactly cold here. Your leg just is. And I told your friend he had to fix it, but he was scared to do it because it would hurt you.” Shudder let out a grunt in return. “I wouldn’t know what to do, I might make it worse.” He argued. Nye shrugged once more. “probably.” He countered. Valkyrie tried to keep her panic in check. Things only go down the train, once panic is involved, Skulduggery used to say. “Doesn’t matter.” She tried to stop their argument. “They might arrested us, but they will have to send medical support at some point. “ Nye snorted disparagingly. “You really believe that, don’t you?” he laughed. “we just wrecked half of their building. They will not send anyone whatsoever and justify it with the fact that they have to aid their own injured people first.” Valkyrie didn’t need to see Shudder’s face to know, that Nye was right about that. Now she cursed under her breath and it got harder to not let panic take over. “So….” She began “….what happens if we don’t set the leg?” she was scared of the answer she would get. Nye sounded way too happy as it answered her question. “Depends on the fracture. Maybe some permanent damage to the nerves, maybe you simply loose the leg or maybe you just bleed to death inside your own body.” Shudder flinched and Valkyries eyes were wide. “You could have lied to make me feel better, you know.” Valkyrie admonished the doctor. “Yeah I could have. But you also could have been of more help out there.” Was it’s witty blow back. “Oh shut up!” Shudder interrupted Nye.

Carefully he picked up Valkyries head and lowered her onto the floor. “I’ll do it. But you have to tell me what to do.” He hissed into Nye’s direction. “Of course.” The doctor offered. Valkyrie got sacred. This definitively wasn’t something she wanted to witness while being awake. “Can’t you punch me back into unconsciousness before you start?” she asked, but the humor didn’t carry over, instead her voice was shaking with fear. “Sorry Vally, but I don’t want to be responsible if any of those things happen to you. Skulduggery would kill me. You saw what he did to Fletcher, just because he tried to get into your pants. Imagine what he does to someone who let you become a cripple.”

A few things happened at once in the following seconds. First Valkyrie was taken by surprise as Shudder called her by her nickname for the first time ever, until she realized what he said about Fletcher. A mixture of Embarrassment and indignation took over. Meanwhile she simply missed over her own protest, how Nye instructed Shudder to keep her thigh in place with one hand, while trying to feel with the other hand in what direction he needs to twist her lower leg to get it more or less back into place. Without warning and with a sudden firm jerk, her leg snapped to the side. She screamed and the next thing she knew was Shudder pressing her shoulders and her leg down, so she couldn’t move or try to kick her leg. “I am sorry, I am so sorry” He repeated over and over until she was calm again. Her breath was heavy. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, but she was too distracted by herself. “Did it work?” Shudder asked Nye. “Mh….seems straight enough to me. We will have to wait and see.” It measured. Empathy or sympathy really wasn’t Nyes thing. “You just reminded me why I prefer my patients to be dead. Less screaming and arguing.” It said.

Shudder sat next to her and stroke some hair off her damp face. Cold Sweat covered her. She would have paid any price right now, to regain Darquesse’s healing ability. “try to sleep, you need to recover if we want to get out of here.” Shudder said, exhaustion and fading alertness heavy in his voice, even though they both knew it was just something nice to say to Valkyrie. She won’t be able to go anywhere with this leg and they all knew it.

The next few hours, Shudder and Nye spent talking. Down here, there actually wasn’t the acute danger of being overheard permanently. So Nye willingly shared with them, that the Project they tried to work on was a method to bind mortal souls to any magical object. The result would be a new kind of magic, similar to necromancy or the gist, just without years of practice or the risks and responsibilities the other two disciplines brought with them. It also would be more of some kind of weapon, one could use additional to their own magic. It actually was one of the Projects, that Nye deemed possible and then lost interest to work on any further. All he needed was to know that it could work, he didn’t need to finish it to be satisfied, as other problems caught it’s attention and war was waiting around the corner.

Valkyrie couldn’t really fall asleep, but she was by no means fully awake most of the time. Just when a loud blast erupted right next to them in one of the corridors, she regained her full attention. Again a Wall exploded and in the middle of the following cloud of Dust stood Saracen Rue. “Your mighty Rescuer is here.” He announced. “Better get out of here, before they come running. There is no way they didn’t hear that.” He complained as he got to their cell-door. He saw Valkyrie and Shudder and a hissing pressed through his teeth “Ouch! You look horrible.” escaped his lips, before he could stop himself. With skilled fingers he put something on the Bars that looked like Clay to Valkyrie. “Careful” he announced, and without any questions Shudder shielded Valkyrie with his own body. Another loud ‘boom’ shattered through the prison, and as Shudder moved aside Valkyrie saw bursted cell-doors. Shudder picked Valkyrie up in his arms and let out a sharp breath as he did so. “Damn your ribs are broken, Anton.” Saracen said as if it was the most obvious thing. “come here, I’ll take her.” He offered and Valkyrie was passed from Shudder to Saracen. “Hi, my lady. Ready to run?” He said, smiling at her. Valkyrie giggled despite her pain. He was such a charmer. “Was that dynamite?” she asked curiously as she watched Nye extracting himself from his own bursted cell to follow them. “indeed.” Saracen confirmed proudly. “Where the hell did you get that from?” she asked in utter disbelief. They were in the middle of nowhere after all. “What do you mean where did I get it from? I had it with me all along.” He explained as they hurriedly escaped through several broken walls and stairs. “but…we had to hand them all of our weapons.” Valkyrie argued. “Damn girl, you never actually hand over ALL your weapons, when someone tells you to.” Saracen said in concerned seriousness. “That’s like….rule number one.” Shudder, who was right behind them laughed at Saracens lesson-to-go and about Valkyries naivety. After another turn, they actually saw daylight, and cold snowy wind greeted them. Valkyrie never was that grateful for the cold before. “You got them!” a familiar Voice yelled full of relief. It was Fletcher. Not even a second later, they all were safely at their own Sanctuary, thanks to his teleportation magic.


	8. Not the treatment, I asked for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite being creepy and probably evil, Nye is a cool dude, I think. So I just had to give him his little cool moment in this one.

* * *

“What happened?” several voices asked as they noticed their return and hectic filled their surroundings. Fletcher’s voice was close to her ear now, drowned out the other alert voices “Vally? Are you okay?” he stepped into her Vision, her head rested against Saracen’s Chest as he still carried her. They were moving through the corridors, shudder barked the most necessary information and ordered the nearest person to go and get China. Valkyrie put on a rather weak smile, even though she was exhausted. But she didn’t want to worry anyone further and deal with their fears additional to her own. Before she had to figure out how to deal with Fletcher’s obvious concern, she witnessed how Shudder grabbed the teleporter’s hood and pulled him backwards out of the way as the rest of them made their way towards the medical wing. “Let’s get away from all the Gawkers.” Saracen reassured her as he pushed open the last wing-door. As soon as it fell shut behind them the hectic ebbed away. She flinched as Saracen put her down on one of the beds. Doctor Synecdoche attempted to be right there but stopped and stared as she saw Nye following through the door right away. “Hey….hey! You can’t……Mr. Rue…it can’t just…..” she was furious at the sight and didn’t know what to yell first. Nye however knew exactly where it was going. “Don’t bother, I’ll help myself.” It said, bluntly passed her and went to one of the containers. “Mr. Shudder has some broken ribs, you might want to get him away from all the curious people out there and fix him.” It said causally as it just treated it’s own left overs from the attack. “Mr. Rue is unharmed as far as I can tell?” a questioning look towards Saracen, who nodded in agreement but didn’t leave Valkyries side. “Mrs. Cain got more issues than I care to explain, I’ll take care of it.” “Ohhh no you will not!” Valkyrie argued instantly, while Reverie Synecdoche was simply stunned in a most unhappy way. “You are not my Boss!” she exclaimed and was seeking Saracen’s support on the matter. “I know, but you look as if you need some pointers to do your job.” Nye retorted lazily and ignored Valkyries protest aswell. Saracen felt at loss. This was a Situation no one would have imagined as the day started. He tried to make the best out of it, however. “You know, that you are arrested, right?” he asked the Crengan. “I know.” Was it’s unaffected reply, as it started to move through the Med bay as if it never was gone. It barked a few orders, and people started moving after only a little hesitation and questioning glances towards Doctor Synecdoche. “You can’t be serious?!” she exclaimed towards Saracen, who was scratching his head helplessly. “Just….let it help. That way it won’t have time to escape at least until China decided what to do.” Valkyrie grabbed his arm, her fingers dug into it. “You will not let it get near me!” she warned, Reverie agreed with her but Nye already was back. “Why so uncooperative all of a sudden, I patched you up several times before.” Before she could protest any further, a stingy pain went through the crook of her arm, and a warm sensation spread through her body. It only took a few seconds until heavy tiredness overwhelmed her and she fell asleep before Nye even fastened the infusion.

Close to two hours later Valkyrie awoke slowly to voices. Someone was talking in low voices. She recognized Skullduggery. “No, it’s okay. It happened and it wouldn’t happened any different if I would have been with them.” He admitted. Another surpressed voice, a female one answered. “I am glad to hear you say that. I think everyone was a little worried about your reaction after your little display this morning.” it was China. Valkyrie stirred, frowned and finally let her eyes flutter open. “hi….” She said and noticed how dry her mouth felt. She pushed he body up slightly to get into a sitting position, and felt heavy weight on her leg. In slow motion she pulled the blanket aside and saw the splint covering her leg around her knee. Another bitter frown on her face. China stood in front of her bed, she was wearing a stunning red dress and had one arm crossed over her chest, while the other one was elegantly tapping her chin, as if she tried to remember something. Her eyes were fixed on Valkyrie. “Nye mentioned that he patched you up wholly, but you have to let the leg heal for a few days.” It sounded as if she was just passing on the information. “Well, still: good job. We got what we needed. And we know ahead of potential problems with Russia in the future.” China praised. “I’ll leave you two alone. I have to talk to some people. This problem won’t solve itself, and clearly no one else than me will do a thing about it.” She was already turning to leave as she spoke, but now Valkyrie found more strength and pulled herself up in a sitting position, giving her voice it’s usual persistence back. “Wait!” she stopped China, made her glance back over once shoulder with a questioning expression on her beautiful face. “where is Nye now?” Valkyrie asked, worry and a tat of anger in her words. “In a cell.” China replied coolly and moved on.

Valkyrie exhaled relieved. Skulduggery, sitting next to her in a chair, put his hat from is lap an set it on his skull with this daring inclined positioning. “but it’s not all that unhappy about it. This call now seems to be luxury in comparison to the ones you just escaped.” The welcome humor in his voice made Valkyrie smile. “Will you be okay?” he asked as he got up. Valkyrie nodded. “of course! I always am.” she grinned at him. In fact there was no pain left, it was only annoying as hell that her leg felt like a useless weight. But it would only last for a few days, she will be fine. Skulduggery handed her a bundle of fabric. “What’s that?” she asked as she unfolded it curiously. Pants….loose, way too big, pants. She looked at him skeptical. “Why? Those are disgusting!” she exclaimed. Skulduggery shrugged.

“I mean, you can leave the Sanctuary without pants if you want.” The offered alternative didn’t have any appeal to Valkyrie either. “Where are my pants?” she asked as she was searching the room with her eyes.

“Yeah about that…..” her partner began, and he had this careful tone to his voice, that he also used when he had to tell her that there was no food in his fridge, after a long day. “…for once, you need to keep in mind, you wouldn’t be able to get them over the splint anyway….” Valkyries eyes locked with his empty ones as realization set into her. “….and Nye cut them off as he fixed your leg.” He finished. Valkyrie’s face turned colors like a chameleon. “HE DID WHAT?” she exclaimed now furios and tried to get out of bed. “I will kill him, I gonna go down there and beat his ass back to Russia!” it wasn’t easy to get out of the bed with her leg, and this might didn’t really help to let her appear threatening. Skulduggery found the image most amusing. “You might want to wear pants for that too.” He remarked and earned another furious glare from Valkyrie. This time reserved for him. Her eyes became a little watery, and Skulduggery wasn’t quite sure if it was from anger or something else. “they were from Ghastly!” she explained and her voice got whiney. _Ah,_ the detective thought – of course. He put a Hand on her shoulder, helped balancing her as she got dressed.

“Let’s just go home for today.” He offered instead to make some peace. “Let’s see how we get you into the Bentley with this thing.” He pointed towards her unmoving leg as she tried to get into those disgusting pants.

Her eyes snapped towards his face “The Bentley? We go to your place?” confusion visible in her eyes. “Well….yeah.” Skulduggery now sounded similar confused. “I mean, I thought it makes sense. Shudder needs some recover time too and he already got sent home. So I thought you’ll stay at my place until you can walk on your own again and all.” He didn’t sound so sure about it anymore. He just never questioned it. It seemed logical to him. “But all my clothes are there…..and I don’t see what it has to do with Shudder recovering. It’s not like I am disturbing him the whole day you know.” Valkyrie argued, but wasn’t so sure herself now about what to do and where to stay at. “Oh yes, you do!” Skullduggery countered. “I don’t believe you are any more independent there, than you are at my place…. I mean look at you. They left you alone a few minutes and you managed several fractures!”

“now that’s not fair!” she hissed at him as he handed her a crutch, that was leaning against a wall. “Really a crutch? You have no cool magical alternative?” she sounded disappointed.

“If you were awesome like me,” Skulduggery replied, and Val knew she wanted to punch him, before he even finished the sentence, “…then you could just fly. But the crutch will have to do for you.”

They walked out of the medical wing in slow pace, still no decision where to go, yet, until Skulduggery took the word again. “You know if you want to stay at the hotel that’s fine. You don’t need to do anything just to please me. I just….it seemed logical to me.” Valkyrie could here, that he chose his words carefully. She stayed quiet for a while until they passed a few doors. “I’ll stay there until I am ready for duty again.” she stopped and looked at her partner with a bright smile. “That way you can keep working on the case, without the need to worry about me. And I have a sick-buddy with shudder.”

Skulduggery’s head tilted “I told you not to bother him.” She just grinned a little wider. “If that’s what you want to do, alright. But you know, they will all come to visit you two. And Anton will be fine in a day or so.”

Valkyrie tiptoed on her good foot and wrapped her free arm around Skulduggery. “No, no hugging just because you’re injured.” He protested, but didn’t stop her either way. Val giggled. “don’t be such a grumpy guy.” She let go of him. “You keep me informed, right?” she asked hopefully and he only nodded in return. As they said their good byes and Valkyrie turned around to put the key in the next available lock, he caught himself staring at her for a while. He really got soft around her. He still was standing there and staring at the sport where she was, when she was already gone. Something was out of place, something bothered him, he just couldn’t quite put a finger on it, yet.


	9. Not a break, I am unthankful for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is just a cute little gap-closer....those are needed too.

* * *

It was only late afternoon as Valkyrie entered the foyer of the hotel, her crutch clicking on the tiles with each step. She already hated it. It was so damn exhausting and slow. All she wanted to do was to get up into her room, but this was easier said than done. In front of the stairs she stopped and looked up as if she was about to climb a mountain. If only she could just use some of her elemental magic, but she wasn’t sure how well this would work out right now. “Need some help?” a soft voice asked from behind her, close behind her. She flinched and snapped her head around to look at a young, blonde man. “Woah easy, I didn’t want to scare you.” He apologized. Valkyrie stared. This voice was……just wow! She thought Skulduggery was a jerk for using his velvet voice to persuade her, but if this guy had any idea how his voice messed with her she would be hopelessly lost. “yes….no….what did you say?” she blinked. Why was she so confused. In an mental image of slapping herself, she called her brain back to normal functions. “Sorry, who are you?” she asked, now more collected and all detective-like. A calm and soft smile graced his face, and Valkyrie thought she might get an heart attack right here on the spot. “Excuse me, I thought you knew. I am Eric. The boss told me that you might need some help, should you return.” Now Valkyrie blushed, and she just knew it was visible. Why did Shudder say that? That made he look like an invalid, who couldn’t manage basic things alone. She was slightly mad at him. But in the same moment, memories of him holding her down to help her cope with the pain and his beguiling smell flashed through her brain as well and a goofy smile spread on her lips, before she snapped out of it again. “Actually….thank you, but I think I’ll manage. Dealt with worse before….I mean it’s just stairs. “ she sounded confident. But honestly all she wished to achieve was being left alone, to sort out some arising confusion in her head. She inhaled deeply and climbed the first three steps. Then she turned around, just to see Eric watch her. What did he think? As fi she would just fall back down any moment. Geez it annoyed her, pretty voice or not. But she did her best not to show it, wasn’t his fault that she had a hell of a day after all. “What’s with Shudder by the way?” she asked curiously. She expected to see him here, as always despite the events, if she was honest. Of course this was a silly thought – but she just couldn’t imagine someone else behind the counter. Eric smiled again, he really had a warm aura around him, it was scary to Valkyrie. “He already got back here nearly two hours ago and is in his room, I think. He assigned me to manage the hotel for the next two days.” Eric explained friendly. Valkyrie thought for a moment – did he get hurt more badly than he led on, or did she worry too much now? “mhm….thanks.” she turned around to continue the scary way upwards, and could just feel how Eric didn’t move until she was around the corner. So much damned friendliness.

She fell onto the bed, that now was made and was all fluffy. The thought that someone – probably the pretty girl from the morning – was here and cleaned her mess, made her bed and put fresh towels into her bathroom was a little bit unnerving. Sue she was in hotels countless times before, but then she didn’t actually know the staff. Now she knew a few of them, and she knew Shudder. It was silly but she somehow imagined, that they talked to him about her messy her room was. Her cheeks started burning at the thought. What’s with laundry? Shudder said he helps everywhere no matter if it was accounting or cleaning. Does that mean he actually also helped at the laundry? A shiver rand down her spine at that thought. People always said Shudder was a scarry guy, and Val never could agree to that – now she could, for quite different reasons. She chuckled about the journey her thoughts just wandered. Those were really silly things to think. But again memories of the past hours went through her head. She never had all that much to do with him before, her mind probably just tried to cope with the fact, that they were tied together that much for the past hours. She never was brooding that much about it, when Dexter took a blow for her during a mission or when Saracen pulled her out of enemy fire casually. It happened countless times before, Shudders commitment today wasn’t any more or less of comradeship. Just why did she feel so giddy when she thought about it, thought about this alluring smell of him. She shook her head. This had to stop right here and now. Those were just aftereffects of the adrenaline and fear and maybe of her feeling lonely.

Sleep….sleep was what she needed, some food maybe too later on. For a brief moment she debated if she should pay Shudder a visit to make sure he was okay and to let him know she was, but the voice of reason in her head – that sounded like Skulduggery’s – told her that this was a bad idea in her current state and that tomorrow would be soon enough. He probably rested as well anyway.

She let her head roll to the side to look out of the window, but something on the nightstand caught her attention, something she didn’t see before, because she never expected it here – a remote. “Oh god, yes!” she let out as she took the thing in her hands. That meant there had to be a TV somewhere in here, right? Testing, she pushed the on Button and the volume button. Something did happen, there was sound somewhere. Clumsily she fished for her crutch on the floor and heaved herself up to find the damn thing. She followed the direction her ears pointed out and found herself in front of one of the cabinets. Curiously she opened it and found what she was looking for. There was a TV hidden inside. A happy smile spread on her face as she got back into bed. That was what she needed to get ridicules Ideas out of her head and rest. The fluffy blanket was pulled around her as soon as she found a position that was comfortable enough for her leg, and it didn’t take her long to find a channel that actually showed cartoons in her own language. Good enough! Just like that the day found a more or less peaceful end. She didn’t even remember when she did this for the last time, just laying in bed, watching cartoons. At some point Tullia showed up to bring her a plate with sandwiches and some tea, so Valkyrie didn’t have to bother with the stairs for now. She thanked her gratefully and finally managed to really relax.


	10. Not the sight, I wished to have

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah, a little action again - also meet Eric, on eof my OCs and i just love the guy.  
> Oh I should mention: this is going to be the other kind of action. This Chapter should most likely be reated M, so if you don't like it - stop right here!

* * *

The next day however came with it’s own set of problems. She just refused to spend another day in those disgusting pants. So she actually dared to loosen the splint, to put on some tight fitting leggings at least, and then put the thing over them. It worked, it worked with pain, but it worked. She put on a hoodie with the emblem of her former school , but had no deep feelings for it….she barely visit it in person after all, but it was comfortable. A glance in the mirror and she let out a sigh. Did she ever look that ordinary before? She was so used in seeing herself in combat-gear and Ghastly’s leather clothing, that this was just so alien to her. She looked like any other girl. But it probably was the right choice, she wouldn’t be part of any beatdowns in backstreets today, that much was for sure.

With just as much enthusiasm she hopped to the place where her crutch leaned and made her way downstairs. It was easier this way around. With another hoppy bounce, she reached the floor and looked around. Eric was behind the counter, smiling as warm and soft as yesterday when he saw her. “Good Morning.” he greeted her. He was wearing a grey button-up shirt, and Valkyrie had to admit it looked really good on him. She hobbled over to him and climbed one of the stools. She caught his attempt to help her up, but stopped him with one glare. “good morning” she returned finally as she sat.

“You know, we would have gotten breakfast ready and up for you. The owner told us to take care of you as long as you are…uh…hindered” he said, and Valkyrie already got annoyed about how good he was at picking polite words. “Thank you, but I can’t just be stuck in one room for days. I need to get out of there, even if it’s only to come down here.” She confessed. Truth be told she really didn’t know what to do here, but she just felt the need to get downstair. Maybe she also hoped to see Shudder. Next to the sitting area there was a buffet put up, and some of the guests were eating peacefully, a few scrapes of conversations got carried over now and then, but Valkyrie didn’t really pay attention. “If you’d like, I’ll get something for you, you can stay here.” Eric offered. Why was he so damn courteous? Then again, Shudder was too and he probably took an example on him. With a sigh she accepted his offer. Maybe she could at least just talk with him, while she ate.

It turned out to be rather nice talking with eric, once she got over his frustrating friendliness. Eric told Valkyrie how he got to work for Shudder, and shared some examples as for why Shudder actually was a great boss. He also told Valkyrie a bit more about the other People that worked at the hotel. Valkyrie learned, that Tullia and Gloria shared a room in the attic and he had room 18 to himself, right above Shudders. Valkyrie told him how she ended up being one of the dead men, even though she obviously didn’t quite fit the description. He was pretty interested in it, and the awe in his eyes as he listened to her flattered Valkyrie. Once the foyer emptied a little bit, as the day turned past lunch-time and most guests were out to take care of their own business – which most likely were mainly more or less criminal things – she and Eric even started playing cards for a while. It was great, she laughed quite a lot about his unskillful attempts to cheat, since Valkyrie announced that good cheating was part of every game. She was a lot more successful in her attempts, since she had plenty of time to practice her trickster skills with Dex and Saracen during their missions.

The fun got interrupted however as someone literally got thrown through the front-door. He landed crashing on the floor and one of the tiles cracked. Another man entered the hotel right behind him. Instantly eric had thrown his cards away and rounded the counter. With peacefully held up hands, he stepped closer to the two men. “Easy gentlemen, no fighting in the hotel.” He reminded them. He clearly wasn’t pleased by the Situation and wanted to deescalate it. “How about you settle this somewhere else or just stop right here?” he asked, but it didn’t sound like a question, more like an well-meant advice. Eric didn’t seem threatful the least, Val had to admit. If she wasn’t so immobilized she surely could do the trick – however for a moment she forgot, that she wasn’t really helpful at the moment and with a sharp tone yelled “HEY!” towards the fighting men. Both looked at her, clearly not amused. “Shut up girl!” one of them yelled and pushed Eric aside as he charged at the other man and crashed a fist in his stomach. They got dangerously close to Valkyrie, and just then she got reminded, that she wasn’t able to get out of the way fast enough if anything happened.

Eric looked at her. “Go, get the boss.” He ordered, and without complaint Valkyrie got off the stool, didn’t even bother with the crutch, she just limped towards the stairs. It was so frustrating, that she was so useless! With gritted teeth she climbed the stairs as fast as it was possible for her. She could hear a yelp of pain from downstairs and didn’t know who it was from. She was worried it might could have been Eric. He didn’t appear as someone with fighting-experience.

She reached Shudders door, and didn’t hesitate as she pushed it open. “Shu….” She started but the words got stuck in her throat at the sight. Time seemed to be stuck for a few seconds as she just stared with wide eyes and open mouth. There was Shudder sitting on his own bedside, his head laid back into his neck, eyes shut and a mixture of exhaustion and pleasure visible on his face, as he was breathing heavily. His shirt was open, exposing his chest, his pants loose around his hips. On top of his lap was the pretty woman from room 03. She straddled him, her head thrown back as well, her throat exposed to him, her pretty face painted with pleasure as well, she was moaning and sweat glistened on her forehead, as she rode him in a sporty rhythm. Her dress was pulled up over her hips, and Shudders hands were on her, one at her backside, guiding her movements, the other one clenched into her thigh. Valkyrie could quite visible see how his cock was gliding in and out of her with each glide.

She just was dumbstruck and stood there, as the image burned into her head. It only took them the friction of a second to notice the intrusion, but it was enough for Valkyrie to see way too much. She stood petrified, as Shudder let out a growled “Shit!” quite unlike his usual collected self. Valkyrie tried very hard to find her tongue again, but just couldn’t. She didn’t need to either, as another crashing sound from downstairs erupted through the corridor, followed by another pained scream. Shudder lifted the woman off of him and literally tossed her onto the bed as he got up hurriedly and with low cursing under his breath. She let out a yelp and an surprised “oh!” as she spotted the girl standing in the door as well. Valkyrie still was so stunned, she couldn’t even bring up the decency to look away as he reorganized himself to close his pants and pull his belt shut. He looked at Valkyrie for a brief moment, looking her over. And for better or worse, she just couldn’t tell what kind of look that was. Was he angry? Embarrassed? Worried? She just couldn’t read him, not at the moment anyway. He passed her in a rush as he still pushed his Shirt into his trousers. Only then Valkyrie moved, if only to avoid any physical contact with him. She turned around, her eyes following him. So at least she didn’t have to look at the exposed woman any longer. Not that she had any mind to goggle at her. “S…Sorry.” She muttered to her as she left limping without turning around again. She put a hand over her face and rubbed it. What the hell did just happen? Absolutely lost, she wandered the stairs back down again. Grabbing the handrail and hopping down a step on her good foot. Step by step until she was in the foyer again. When she arrived. Shudder stood there between the men. His clothes perfectly in place, as if nothing happened. However he didn’t have anything to do. The man who entered after the other laid on the ground and let out grunts of pain. He didn’t try to get up.

Shudder looked at Eric rather angrily. “What did you send her up for? You are absolutely capable to handle such situations on your own. I told you over and over again, that I wouldn’t let you have the counter if you couldn’t do this.” He practically growled at the younger man. Valkyrie never saw him so angry unless in battle. And she winced at the display. “Damn Eric, she can’t walk.” She winced again at this statement, while she clearly knew this wasn’t the reason for Shudders anger. Poor Eric…. Poor her. She wished there was a way to just pretend this never happened. Avoid any awkward conversation afterwards, and damn why did she feel so conflicted about this? A nausea feeling bubbled in her belly and she had to admit she was trembling a tiny bit. But she couldn’t name the why behind it. Okay so she saw shudder balls deep in this pretty woman…..and? Dex told his bed-stories all the time when they were traveling together. She never cared. Again Shudder turned to look at her with this implacable look, and Valkyrie caught herself avoiding his gaze. She looked to the floor, still holding onto the handrail of the stairs. Then again, she had to admit, hearing about this kind of stuff and seeing it were quite some different pairs of shoes. And this was Shudder, not Vex. Valkyrie knew Vex was a womanizer….but Shudder….. she always expected him to be somewhat reluctant, if not plainly asexual. Her cheeks burned and she actually wanted to cry.

Shudder let out an annoyed groan. “Just….kick him out. You don’t need me.” He barked at Eric, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Everything alright?” he asked the other of the fighting man, who wiped some blood off his lower lip but nodded. “Grab a drink.” Shudder recommended and walked past him. As he did so he put a hand on the guys shoulder briefly. “Didn’t know you hired a bonebreaker as your pinch-hitter.” The guy laughed bitterly. Shudder just waved it off, he was walking back towards the stairs, towards her. Her heart started to chase it’s own beat. She wanted to just run away, but this would be stupid and childish and she couldn’t anyway with this leg. God, this was so uncomfortable, she never even caught her parents doing it. Why did it have to happen with one of her comrades, with Shudder out of all of them. With Saracen it would have been some kind of ‘this just happened, but let’s move on’-Situation….Dex just would have laughed it off and make fun of it. But this…..this seemed so much more complicated. She prepared for whatever he had to say to her…. But there was nothing. He simply walked past her as well and ascended the stairs. Only when he already was half way up he turned around. “Do you need help?” he asked a little harsh, but seemed pretty relieved as she shook her head, still avoiding his face. He moved on and after a while she could hear him closing his door. Only then she noticed that she was holding her breath and now exhaled.

Eric reentered the hotel after getting rid of the now unwelcomed guest. “Damn he was pissed off. Sorry, didn’t know he would get that angry.” He still smiled, though. Now Valkyrie also got angry at him, even when she knew it had nothing to do with him. “Why the fuck did you send me to get him, if you already had everything under control.” She hissed at him. Her face red – seemingly from anger – only she knew this wasn’t the case.

Eric put his hands up “Sorry, sorry. It’s just I don’t like violent situations. I would have preferred the boss would have solved this.” He explained a little shocked by Valkyries outburst.

“You are a god damn bonebreaker?! I mean come on….. don’t like violent situations? It can’t get any more violent than that!” now she was yelling at him. She wanted to just run upstairs and hide in her room, but she already was out of breath. Instead she just sunk down and sat on the last few stairs, now pouting. This was all pretty messed up.


	11. Not the interruption, I was prepared for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we go: this one is rated E.  
> This is what happened out of Shudder's POV, also starting to switch perspectives now a little bit, so try to keep up.

* * *

_(Shudder's POV)_

This mission was just nerve wrecking. Not so much because it was difficult – things always got difficult. That was okay, and he expected this to go down the drain the moment they got separated at the prison. No what really got him on edge and on alert the whole time they were there was this feeling that he had to watch out for Fletcher and Valkyrie. Sure Skulduggery had trained Valkyrie well and she proved on several occasions that she was fully capable of pulling her own weight, but she was still young and unexperienced and the though of Skulduggery’s reaction if anything serious happened to her was simply heartbreaking. And fletcher was no fighter. Sure he was a useful part of their group – that came kind of naturally with being a teleporter – but the only reason why he was still alive, was because he didn’t risk anything and left when it was better for him to leave. However when he was out in mission with the other guys it was easier to push the worry for them aside, just trust that they would hold themselves up and focus on what he was doing. With the two youths he constantly worried. He didn’t mind the broken rips. But he rarely felt so tens and stressed during or after a mission, as a matter of fact. When he saw Valkyrie laying on the floor there, saw her twisted leg, his heart dropped to his knees, all the while he was worrying if Fletcher actually got out. It’s not like he had the free capacity to focus on such things, when he is busy keeping control over his gist. It wasn’t like he didn’t want them to be a part of them. In fact he thought having Valkyrie added to the dead men was one of the best things that happened during the past hundred years. He wasn’t sure if otherwise, they could have moved past Ravels betrayal and Ghastly’s death. But maybe this made it even harder for him to simply trust them, and not worry.

When he got back from the Sanctuary, Valkyrie was still getting patched up, by Nye apparently. He exchanged a few words with Skulduggery, who assured him that Nye would be able to fix her leg and he made it worse, as he feared. They had a little private talk in the cafetaria – those were rare these days, as everyone was busy with their own business and grieve.

_“Thank you, Anton. I know you don’t cope well with those kind of decisions.” Skulduggery said, his velvet voice echoed through the hall. Anton had to admit he was right. He hated such situations, when everything just seemed like the wrong turn and you had to take one bad decision over another. “If you would have gone strict by the book, you could have left her there and get Nye out. And no one would have questioned your action.” He continued and there was something in his voice that gave Anton the feeling he was being provoked. Good thing he knew Skulduggery too well to actually feel that way._

_“I would have…. Could have never done that, you know that. You wouldn’t have done that either.” He shot back. Skulduggery tilted his head, they were sitting next to each other, Anton looking at his folded hands in his lap, Skulduggery staring at the Ceiling. “Yeah…. But I always do what’s right.” Was his witty answer and Shudder laughed bitterly. “Yes that’s the point.”_

_Now the detective actually looked at his friend’s profile. “What’s getting you so wound up? Valkyrie is fine, you all got out there, you got Nye alive and it even is cooperative.” Shudder frowned. “it just is frustrating, that I can’t get adjust to them being out there with us. It is so distracting. I never worried that much about anyone of you guys. It’s unnerving. And her face when I twisted her leg, that was pure pain. Damn Skulduggery I don’t want her to associate me with that pain every time she sees me, she will avoid me even more than she did in the past.”_

_His old friend looked as surprised as it was possible without a face. “That’s what bothers you? Of course you worry… you are just a protective guy, a natural bodyguard…. And they are young and admittedly sometimes Valkyrie doesn’t take the smartest of all actions….. And after everything that happened lately, I think we all worry a little bit more about each other than we used to.” He shifted his position slightly so that he was actually facing the other one. “and she doesn’t avoid you. You two just never had much reason to socialize with each other. She’s more of the less-thinking-more-action-kind of girl so more on one page with Vex and Fletcher.”_

_There was some truth in Skulduggery’s words and Anton had to admit it did dissolve some of his doubts. “Maybe….. “ he still would have preferred to drop the topic for now, so he did, knowing Skulduggery wouldn’t push it. “ What do you think how long will it take until she’s ready to go home?” Shudder didn’t notice how Skulduggery’s head tilted in a way that showed his discomfort, maybe not even he himself noticed._

_“I am not sure, I didn’t see her. Rue thinks it will take a while, though. You know he’s probably right….it’s Saracen after all.” There it was again this feel of unease, as if he was missing something. He shook it off. “Go home and rest. I will wait for her.”_

And he did. And now half a day passed already and he still did not hear or see anything of Valkyrie, which brought back his worry of her avoiding him. And his frustration grew, mainly about himself. Tullia told him that she was indeed resting, but he still would have felt better if he saw himself that she was alright now.

So actually it wasn’t an unwelcome distraction when Lucie Gigot knocked on his door. He knew it was her before he opened it. Lucie was a regular guest at the hotel, and the only reason why she came here on regular basis was to escape her unfulfilling marriage, whenever her husband was gone for business to get what she needs from him instead. And that was absolutely fine with him. It was a mutual relationship of using each other, and had nothing to do with romantic feelings. She had a thing for him, and he got her to play by his rules. And it crossed his mind, that she was exactly what he needed to clear his head, as she entered his room with this alluring, dirty smirk on her face.

Lucie did notice his short temper and his tension, but this wasn’t a reason to retreat – quite the opposite. Usually she had to put in some work to get Anton to this point, she liked him when he was like that.

She already was here for a few days, and this wasn’t their first encounter since she checked in, so Shudder felt no obligation to handle her with velvet gloves. “No fancy games today.” He simply stated instead of a greeting as she entered. “I’ve got three broken ribs, you’ll do the work today, understood?” he opened the top button of his shirt and his eyes were piercing her. She licked her lips and this wicked smile spread a tiny bit. “If that’s what you wish” her voice was a purring, that rose his anticipation. Yes, this was what he needed. She stepped close towards him and her nimble fingers started to work the rest of his shirt’s buttons, as he took several steps backwards, forcing her to follow him. By the time his legs bumped against his bed, she already had his shirt completely undone. Her fingers danced over the visible bruise on his side and she tried to shrug his loose clothing off. He grabbed her hand. “No!” his voice was sharp and satisfaction settled in as she let go, instead she watched as he opened his belt. “Come on, you know what to do.” Now his lips were close to her ear, so close, that his hot breath tickled her. Goosebumps rose over her neck and arms and her voice was as light and playful as a butterfly. “Sure, I do.” She pushed him against the bed timidly, but he let her do it and sank down on it, sitting on it, admiring her beauty from down below. Her husband really didn’t know what he was missing out on. Shudder knew for a fact that her husband preferred to busy himself with younger women when he was traveling, knew the guy for quite a few decades now, so he didn’t have a slice of guilt in him, when Lucie seeks his occasional company.

Very slowly and with this cat like grace of her, she went down on her knees and pushed his thighs apart to make room for herself between them. He watched her like a hawk, he always had a thing for women that knew what they wanted and didn’t shy away from taking it, no matter how much he might tried to scare them away. And oh lord, he did try, when this started. Not that he minded a few affairs – he was a man after all. He might didn’t expect to find eternal love, not after Larrakin, but this was enough for him. It took several decades and a few unpleasant interactions with Mr. Gigot to let him give him to Lucie’s attempts at some point.

He could feel himself growing half-hard as her elegant long fingers worked it’s way through his dress pants, brushing his crotch ever so softly, as if it was an oversight – but he knew damn well it was on purpose. Her dark eyes looked up at him with this mischievous sparkle in them and he only barely noticed himself leveling his breath as her fingers found their destination and closed softly around his member. “too much freedom makes you rush things, I see” he let out his voice a little rougher already. She just smirked at him, as her hand started to move steadily up and down his shaft. Now he couldn’t help it, his breath hitched as she coaxed him to harden and to channel all his tension in some way. It bothered him that she knew exactly what she was doing, usually he preferred to stay in control of those situations – unfortunately he really didn’t have the temper for it today. As the feeling in his belly already started to knot itself up and he felt his own hardness, she freed him. The colder air of the room brushed over his length and he closed his eyes in anticipation. Only for a moment he dwelled in the sensation of her fingers working him. He actually could let go of the things that bothered him and haunted his thoughts. Suddenly something hot and wet engulfed the tip of his cock and he hissed as his eyes fluttered open to see Lucies pretty lips wrapped around him. In the back of his mind he noticed with some annoyance that her lipstick will get everywhere, but he kept the thought at bay. He didn’t need to say a word either. She knew exactly well that he wouldn’t let this one go just so, next time there would be proper punishment for her cocky actions today. But that didn’t stop her, if anything it made her act even bolder.

Her tongue moved, was gliding over his hat, exploring every unevenness and every part of the soft and hot skin there. He could feel the heat rising in him and around him and his hand automatically wandered along her upper arm, her shoulder, up her neck and cradled her head. His fingers buried in her red hair and unconsciously Shudder started to guide her closer, forcing himself deeper into the hot wetness of her mouth. She didn’t flinch and didn’t complain, only took him gratefully. Just when he could feel the softness of her throat around him did he notice, it didn’t stop him however. She could take it, and he knew. But he put quite some effort in holding still, letting her decide the pace and extend of her movements as she started sucking and letting him glide through the slickness. Her hands pushing against the base of his shaft to steady herself, the light pressure this put against his balls drove him mad, but with iron strength he managed to let her do the work. Little moans in the back of her throat vibrated around his cock and his breath grew pressed and strained. Why was she so damn good? The worst part was, that she seemed to enjoy this way too much. A part of him wanted to feel selfish about this, but she just didn’t let him with all the soft moans and the growing eagerness of her movements. He half considered to just let her finish him off and send her back on her way – proper punishment for her bold actions today. But while he did follow strict standards when it coma to this kind of intercourse, he was no jerk. He took quite some pride from leaving his partners satisfied. “Stop” he growled and she did instantly hold still, even the soft provoking twitching of her tongue around him stopped. “Get up.” He ordered short bound and shivered as he glided out of her mouth, now wet and exposed to the cool air. He didn’t let it show on his face however. He watched her rise until she was standing between his legs, a nice flush on her face and cleavage. She did enjoy it after all – this little minx. “pull your dress up.” Was his next comment in low voice, and his eyes followed the fabric as she obeyed. With a quirk of his eyebrow he remarked the lack of underwear. “You didn’t even dress up for me this time. You slack off, my dear.” He complained with indifferent voice. “another point to add to the list for next time, I suppose.” He didn’t need to look up to know that she was chewing her lower lip in contemplation. Without messing around his rough, large fingers pushed it’s way between her thighs and found her folds. The slick, hot wetness there was exactly what he hoped to find. She always was so easy to be prepared for him – sometimes he thought this was a bad thing, but today he was actually grateful for it. He locked eyes with her, as his fingers started to move, to rub against her sex. She let out a sigh and her eyes fluttered shut at the sudden sensation. “Don’t you dare closing your eyes.” He pulled her back to reality. “look at me.” She did, the redness on her cheeks deepening as he stroke her. It didn’t take long for her breath to become erratic and he chose this exact moment to push his index finger inside her. The tight, hot feeling around it pushed his anticipation. She let out another lustful moan, Anton let it go this time. He was so indulgent with her today, she may as well enjoys it while it lasts. Only a few thrusts and a second finger followed inside. Another moan and her legs began to quiver. “Stay straight.” He urged her, and she bit her lower lip a little bit harder as she struggled to do as she was told. He picked up the pace, his fingers pumping in and out of her nearly violently. She was panting as his free hand cam up behind her, fingers groping on her backside to steady her. His face came closer to her flat stomach and he placed some featherlight kisses on the revealed skin as he kept going. The tickling sensation made her muscles there cramp, increasing the tension he build up inside her. Her heart began to flutter as she watched his lips traveling lower and lower down her abdomen, until he reached his destination and his lips closed around the sweet bundle of nerves exposed between her lower lips. She let out a lustful sob as she tried to inhale greedily to compensate the overstimulation. But Shudder wouldn’t have any of this , he didn’t fancy when his partners tried to hold back. A third finger got added, and it was too much for Lucie. He could feel her walls clenching around his fingers, had to keep her upright and in place as her hips jerked away. He didn’t let her escape, didn’t let her water the sensation down. He kept working through her orgasm and enjoyed the sweet little moans and sobs that escaped her lips uncontrollably. His cock twitched and throbbed at the display of her pure pleasure. Just when she came down from her high, he let her drop onto him, onto the bed and caught her. He gave her a few moments to catch her breath and let her recover as she laid sprawled on top of him, he simply ignored the pain in his chest, where she was slightly pushing against his injured ribs. He could take that. Once her breath went back to a normal pattern, his hand began to move up her thigh, his lips at her ear again. “Ready?” he asked, and even though her agreement sounded tired and exhausted, as if she would fall asleep on the spot, he knew he would make her moan and scream his name again. She already straddled him as it was, so he simply took his throbbing cock into his own hand and guided it towards her slick entrance. She whimpered at as she felt him there, and he put the other hand on her shoulder to keep her from jerking away, as he angled his hips to push into her in one go, stretching her out. A muffled curse fell from her lips. “get up, I can’t move like that.” His tone was as commanding as ever and even though she had trouble getting up, adjusting to the shifting angle of him inside her, she got in a sitting position on top of his lap, he followed her, one hand wandering to her ass, slapping her once, to leave a stingy pain there, before his finger dug into the Felsch, the other hand kept her thigh down so she could start moving onto him properly. “Come on Lucie, move.” Again this rough commanding voice, and it simply turned her on. She started to heave herself up, steading her weight on his broad shoulders as she rode him, slowly at first. Still oversensitive from the previous orgasm, there was a hot burning feeling every time her clit rubbed against his body when she came crashing down on him. “That’s not all you can do, Lucie.” He barked, and she picked up the tempo. Her nipples were rock hard under that dress and she could feel the fabric rubbing at them with each movement. Sweat formed on her skin, and each time she went down on his hardness, it went in so deep, she thought he would tear her open, but yet it was still a sensation she greedily chased. His fingers kneaded the flesh of her backside, each time crawling a little bit closer between her cheeks, until his fingers brushed against the entrance there, not ever pushing, but making herself push against them with every movement. It spurted her on even more.

Anton let his head fall back into his neck, he closed his eyes as his breath grew hotter and irregular. She was so good around him, she reacted so well to each of the impulses he gave her. That was no coincidence, that was training, that paid off now. He could feel himself getting closer to being pushed over the edge. The knot in his belly felt so tight, and was so hard it bordered at pain. He got lost in it, his brain free of anything but making her go a little bit wilder and rougher on him, and his own lust.

So ashamed he had to admit, his reaction was slower than it should have bin for a seasoned soldier, as the door flung open and the familiar, young voice of Valkyrie broke mid-sentence. Within a moment there was cold sweat and shock overwhelming him, as his eyes snapped open and he saw her standing in the door. Lucie didn’t stop, she probably didn’t notice – she was way too far gone. “Shit!” he let out, which Lucie obviously took as a sign that he was close increasing her movement slightly and much to his shame Shudder noticed that he had to grit his teeth not to come right here and there with Valkyrie watching. Why was she here? Why? A loud crashing sound echoed through the corridor and a pained scream followed. “Fuck!” he cursed again as he finally found the strength to get up, pushing the woman on his lap off and onto the bed. Only then Lucie noticed the unwelcome visitor and only reacted with a mildly surprised “oh!” She obviously didn’t mind so much, that they were caught and being watched. Shudder tried to sort his moist and still painfully hardened dick into his pants. His eyes didn’t leave Valkyries face. She didn’t look away either, she openly stared at him, at his most private area open mouthed and unashamed. He wrote that off as shock. She was way to young and innocent to show voyeuristic tendencies, he thought. He tried to read her face as he got himself presentable quickly. But besides the shock he couldn’t make out anything. He just regretted, that they didn’t lock the door really. More noise from downstairs, and he rushed past her, leaving Lucie and Valkyrie behind. While he walked, he fixed his dress shirt. And except a few stains on his clothes, no one noticed unless they openly were staring at his crotch. Aside of that, he looked as neat as always.

Apparently there was a fight going in the foyer, and he didn’t need to investigate to know, that Eric sent Valkyrie up to get him. He was a competent guy, but his pacifistic tendencies kept getting into the way, when he had to take actions. Always relying on Shudder if he could. However things already escalated enough, to let the boy put his magic to use. One of the fighting parties laid on the ground, probably with several broken bones. Shudder couldn’t help but set the boy straight. He wasn’t even angry that he looked for his help at this, he was just so damn angry that he actually send Valkyrie to get him and angry at his own carelessness. Once things were set here, he turned around to retreat again and sort his thoughts and of course there she was, standing at the stairs’ foot, looking at him with those big eyes as if she was at the business end of his gun. He felt awful, seeing her like that and with this splinter around her leg too – he saw it for the first time now. He definitely wasn’t ready to deal with her yet. He wanted to say something to her, tried to find the words as he neared her, but his brain wasn’t going to provide him with anything useful. God, why had it to be so complicated with her. If any other of the dead men would have been in her stead, they would have laughed or hoot at him for getting caught shameless like that, there would have been an annoying review of the events at their next meeting and maybe some congratulations and the topic would have been dropped. But with Valkyrie….. just another proof of how different things were with her. She was a girl, and young, unexperienced probably, innocent compared to any of them for sure. She wouldn’t just shake it off with a joke, that much was clear by the unsettled look in her wide eyes.

So instead of saying anything he just cowardly walked past her and went upstairs. Only after he was halfway gone he remembered her leg and how long it took for her to follow him downstairs actually. He turned around, looked her over. “Do you need some help?” he asked, but she shook her head, avoided eye-contact and he heard himself exhale in relief. He was such a coward at this, he thought to himself as he left.

When he was back in his room and shut the door behind him a little more forceful than necessary, he had to recognize, that all the tension and stress he tried to get rid of, was back. Some noises emerged from his bathroom, and he saw Lucie fixing her lipstick. She looked presentable again as well. When she noticed his return and left the bathroom she smiled at him. “This wasn’t the end I expected.” She admitted. “What happened?” the curiosity in her voice sounded sweet. She always managed to appear as if she actually was interested. Shudder liked that about her. “A fight downstairs, Eric wasn’t sure if he can handle it on his own, so he sent Valkyrie to get me.” He took a seat and pulled a hand through his hair to comb it back. Lucie didn’t bother to make herself comfortable anymore, she kept standing. “The girl? I met her at your door last night. Who is she?” she asked, and there wasn’t any tone of threat or jealousy in her voice, just sweet curiosity. Lucie wasn’t one of the jealous ones to begin with, she saw an opportunity in everything. So Shudder took a deep breath when he figured, this wasn’t any different. “She works with Skulduggery.” He said, not sure what information to share with Lucie on this topic. But this was already enough to make her remember something “Oh, the girl that joined you guys little wrecking-havoc-club?” she asked with a smile. “I heard about it.” Her smile grew more wicked. “She seemed not uninterested, judging by how glued her eyes were to you.” Her eyes wandered shamelessly towards his crotch. And Anton pulled a grimace. “Forget about it Lucie…. She is just as young as she looks.” Surprise formed on her face. “that was no interest, that was …. Fright I guess.” The annoyance in his voice was thick now. “Oh, I wouldn’t have guessed, sorry. I thought she’s older, since she fought in the war with you guys and all.” Shudder nodded in agreement. “Yes, people tend to think that way. But I got reminded of her youth several times during the past days. I feel like a babysitter – one that mucked this up right now.” Lucie laughed her crystal clear light laugher. “Oh don’t worry. She will get over it – I am sure of it, I was a young girl too once, you know.” She gave him a naughty wink. “If you’d like I can speak to her and settle things. I would prefer anyway. Don’t need others to know about us.” She offered and Anton clearly didn’t know if this was a good idea. “Do what you think you need to do” he said after all. He could not avoid to speak to her himself either way, so it didn’t really matter. “Well I guess, the fun for today is over….. I’ll see you later.” She left light-footed and shut the door behind herself. Shudder let out a grunt. He still was half hard, which disturbed him slightly and added to his frustration. He needed a cold shower now….and then he would try to speak to Valkyrie, before she fled the hotel and kept avoiding him for the rest of their days.

The shower gave him time to think, and did the trick. He thought about how to approach the topic, while the cold water was streaming down his body. He first impulse actually was to call Skulduggery for advice or to settle this, but exploring this idea further he came to the conclusion, that it wouldn’t be the best course of actions. Who knew how Valkyrie would take it if he involved her partner. After all, he decided, he had to simmer down. This probably wasn’t as horrible as he thought. For fucks sake she was 18 years old and dated a vampire. Not like she found out people did those kind of things, for the first time. She would get over it, if he just addressed it openly. His teeth nearly were clattering when he got out of the shower. He put on fresh clothe, towel-dried his hair and decided he may as well could do with a shave. He looked a little worn out.

Half an hour later he went down the stairs with brisk steps, just the way he always did when he had things to do – even though his agenda had nothing to do with hotel business right now. He didn’t need to go looking for Valkyrie, she was sitting at the counter, talking with Eric and Tullia or rather listening to them talking. She looked distracted, her eyes were following Tullia’s lips as he spoke but obviously were looking somewhere distant. Tullia attention however was caught by Shudder as soon as he announced himself. “Ev’ning boss.” She said with a bright shining smile. “You feel better? We were worried.” She nodged Eric with her elbow and he scratched his head immediately in an awkward gesture. “sorry again for earlier. I should….try to deal with things like that alone.” He apologized, honesty in his words. But Anton couldn’t have any of that right no. Alle he had eyes for, was Valkyrie stiffening and growing tense, as she stat their and didn’t turn around to look at him. Her eyes glued to something at the key-rack. “it’s all good, don’t worry.” He told his employees of. “I just was a bit worn out. “ he actually didn’t want Eric to feel bad about anything. “Would you mind, trying to reach Mariam, Tullia? We could need her tonight.” Shudder asked politely and Tullia inclined her head before she literally danced off to do so. His look went to Eric, “The Window in room 06 doesn’t close. Would you fix this before Mr. Johnson returns?”. Eric was on his toes nearly instantly. “Sure thing!” he announced, and marched off as well. Not once did Valkyrie look at him, instead she watched after Eric as if her last chance of rescue just took it’s leave. He pulled the other barstool closer and simply had to lean back to sit on it. One leg stretched out on the floor, the other on the stool’s foot. He admitted, he kind of trapped Valkyrie like that. He would have to move to give her enough space to leave. Maybe this wasn’t the smartest thing to do in hindsight of wanting an open talk, but he just couldn’t help himself. “Mind talking about it?” he started and just then she forced herself to look at him, whilst still avoiding direct eye-contact. “Actually….. let’s just forget about it. I should have knocked. This was my fault….. I guess I didn’t think of…. Well…. The possibility….” She stammered hastily. “I mean…. No-not that I think you don’t … or wouldn’t …. Ah I mean, just with Skulduggery I never have to worry about any….anything like that …. So….” Anton grimaced and interrupted this wild flood of words.

“Valkyrie…. Take a breath once in a while.” He said. “I am not …. You don’t have to explain yourself. We should have locked the door. So neither I nor Lucie are mad at you. I just don’t want this to become something awkward between us…. Don’t get angry at me for saying this, but you young people tend to care way to much about such things.” He confessed honestly. “if it were Saracen or Vex, they probably would have joked at my costs for it and that’s about it. But you seemed rather…. Uncomfortable… so… I don’t know. Are you okay?” he asked. He really didn’t know if he was supposed to be mad or understanding right now or if it was weird at all that he didn’t just ignore it.

Valkyrie now looked at him, and he didn’t miss the faint blush on her cheeks. If those were different circumstances he would have laughed at that – she really was as innocent as he feared she was. “Everything is fine…. This is somewhat awkward right now …. But you know…. A lot of things are. I surprised Vex while he watered a tree during the last mission, then he pissed on his own shoes.”

Oh lords, nothing was okay – she was as nervous as a hen on caffeine. He should make her stop talking before this would be spiraling downwards even more. “Not quite the same kind of situation, but I get what you are trying to say.” Anton answered diplomatic. “as long as you will be fine, we gladly can drop the topic.” He offered and leaned back to give her some more personal space. “What about your leg?” he tried to distract her finally. She still was as stiff as a stick and he could practically see her pulse running a marathon on her carotid. She looked down at her leg as if she had forgotten and tried to see what he was talking about. “Oh that …. I will be fine in a few days.” As she looked back up her eyes involuntarily stopped for a moment at his belt buckle or somewhere below. He wasn’t sure if she even noticed it herself, so he didn’t comment it. She probably still tried to get certain images out of her memory. “I mean, are you fine with what happened? I didn’t want to make it any worse for you.” He guided the conversation into more serious realms, so maybe she calmed down on that. He saw the frown forming on her face as she remembered the events of the last day. “You didn’t…. you probably did the only right thing.” She said, now with less strained voice. “I wanted to tell you right there that it was okay… I just…. Kind of had to deal with myself at the point.” He nodded understandingly. “good, I was worried about that actually.” His voice was kept low and calm.

For a moment it seemed as if she was relaxing, exhaling steadily, lowering her tense posture. But this progress got ruined rather fast, as Lucie made her way down the stairs and Valkyries dark eyes caught her. Even though she wasn’t even looking their way, also not attempting to approach them. Valkyrie was back at alert instantly. “Ahm…. You know thank you for…. You know worrying and saving me back there, but I do have a date with Tanith for tonight and should get ready. You don’t have to ponder about anything that happened really. I just learned my lesson.” She gave him a pretty faked smile, and hoped off the stool on her good leg. Shudder actually gave her the space to do so, but he did consider keeping her trapped until things actually were solved. With some well-trained movements of her fingers, she manipulated the air, so her crutch was flying into her open hand. All he did was putting a hand on her arm, carefully. “So just so we are clear, you are still as welcome here as before. Just so you don’t think you have to go back …” he was looking for the right word “…home”. It wasn’t the right word, but the clearest he could get. Neither Skulduggery’s place, not Gordon’s mansion were her home actually – she had yet to find her place, another reminder of her youth for him. Again this smile, that didn’t reach past her lips. “Thank you, but I wouldn’t have left anyway – the food is too good and Eric is so easy to beat at any card game.” She joked. There was Skulduggery’s influence breaking through her again – avoiding uncomfortable things using humor. Nearly Shudder would have rolled his eyes in annoyance, but he didn’t. “Let’s talk later, yeah?” Valkyrie excused herself with those hollow words and left.

They would most likely not talk later, and despite all the nice words – she would…no she WAS avoiding him. Awesome! So much for an open talk. He reached behind the counter and fished for the little sign, that told guests to ring the bell. Once this was set up he pulled his phone out of his packet and dialed Skulduggery’s number as he entered the small kitchen behind the counter. Maybe he did need his advice, after all. He was the only one of them who knew how to deal with awkward teenagers…..then again she was not really a teenager anymore.


	12. Not the help, that was helpful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Valkyrie's POV, starting from the moment, as Shudder went back upstairs after the fight in his lobby.

* * *

Once Shudder had left her standing at the foot of the stairs, she exhaled finally. Only when she heard the door closing, she also took her leave to go and hide in her room. She laid on her bed, staring at the Ceiling and simply didn’t know what to do, how to react. Should she go and apologize…. She should have knocked or something. But somehow she felt….. what? Angry? She certainly didn’t feel like apologizing…more like avoiding or running away. Rushed actions were rarely good actions, Skulduggery used to tell her and yes, maybe he was right about that. Maybe she should sort her thoughts out before she decided on anything.

The images just witnessed still played through her head vividly. She could still see how he was holding that woman onto him, how her face looked, as he she was …. Well …. There was simply no better word than ….. getting impaled by him. She seemed to enjoy it, though. And also Shudders face didn’t leave her mind, how relaxed, how different he looked. A strange feeling mingled in her lower belly and she felt the heat in her face increasing. This was… not okay! Thinking about that didn’t only disturb or confuse her it turned her on, made her curious. “Arghhhh no!” she yelled at herself and shook her head rapidly. This was not going to happen, she would not let this happen to her – natural reactions and shit aside. That was Shudder, scary, old as time Shudder! Just because it turned her on to see people doing it, didn’t mean it was okay to fell anything if it was actually someone she knew and who easily could be her grand grand grand … - a lot of fucking grands – grandpa. And he was a comrade, like Skulduggery’s oldest friend. This was plainly wrong. She would not lay here and indulge in those twisted emotions, just because it got her somehow curious seeing this other side of someone she thought she knew, and because she felt lonely and because she just simply wondered the whole time if there maybe could be some more to the whole fascination everyone had with sex, than all she saw firsthand so far.

Another groan, she did it again, her thoughts just took their own course to some places they shouldn’t wander to. What was that anyway? Was this like a one-time thing or did stuff like this happen on a regular basis? Was she his girlfriend? Like they all knew Dexter had several flings but Shudder…. Always seemed so uninterested in anything like this to her… but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he just had the decency to keep quiet and discrete about the things that happened in his bed? Another hot wave burned her cheeks and did some funny things to the rest of her body. As her thoughts kept on circling. He didn’t seem like he didn’t know what he was doing…. Not as clumsy and shaky as the things she and Fletcher did. Valkyrie never was as gone as the woman on Shudders lap right there…..

“God, no! Ew! Stop it!” she slapped herself. This needed to stop. All the blame to er hormones and this fucked up experiences of the past days. First this horrible date with Fletcher, that ended with him trying to get ‘into her pants’ as Shudder put it so nicely, and just simply failed to convince her in any sense of the word. Then this horrible display of drunkenness as she got here, and then the whole getting rescued because she fucked up in this prison. All of those things just played tricks on her mind, now that she was confused. Maybe being alone wasn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe she should go back downstairs and seek someone’s company to keep her thoughts distracted until the confusion stopped.

So she did, she took her seat at the counter again to talk to Eric, who seemed a little unhappy with the past events as well. But Valkyrie managed to pick up a safer topic this way, as she asked questions about his magic. She didn’t know any bonebreakers except Teseract, who was dead now. He did share with her, that he wasn’t all that happy with his magic. He said he was quite a different person when he chose this discipline and ones his Surge occurred, there was just no turning back. Even though in retrospective he would have preferred becoming an elementalist. He didn’t like violence or fighting, so going by this standard his magic was more or less useless to him. But apparently it helped him getting the Job at midnight’s, since Shudder was looking for someone who could ensure people followed his rule. At some point Tullia joined the conversation, and Valkyrie learned that she wasn’t able to cast any magic, however others in her family were so the magic world was no mystery to her. But Jobs at mortal places bored her, and not many magicians hired people like her without any magical power. So she was apparently extremely grateful, that Shudder hired her – now she already worked here for 3 years and was only 19 years old – one year older than Valkyrie herself.

“So…you started working here with only 16 years?” Valkyrie asked a little surprised. There was no way her parents would have let her work at this age. “You worked with Skulduggery too when you were 16, or did I get that wrong?” Tullia asked equally surprised, but probably out of other reasons. She caught Valkyrie off-guard as she had to admit to herself, that Tullia was right. “Yeah…well I did, but only secretly and officially I still went to school….my reflection did at least.” Tullia smiled at her for this answer. “Not that much of a difference. If you parents would have known or understood, then you probably would have gotten out of school as well. There was just no point for me to keep visiting it. I knew I would never be able to take a normal job, and most magical companies don’t care all that much about school grades, but rather about your families reputation and your own abilities….oh hey, everything ok?”

Tullia stopped her babbling, when Eric nodged her arm secretly to make her look at Valkyrie’s face. She looked sad all of a sudden and her eyes seemed like her mind was somewhere else than their talk. Valkyrie was thinking back – a trail of thoughts she followed many times before – would things be different now, if her parents would have know sooner, would have learned about all this in a different way, if the war went different?

“I’m afraid family isn’t really Valkyrie’s favored topic at the moment.” Shudders deep voice rumbled from behind them, and Valkyrie smelled him the moment he spoke and she froze. Why, just why was she so sensitive to this scent of him now? She never noticed it before. But now that it was there, and that she noticed it triggered all kinds of unwelcomed emotions in her. Most of all the vivid images of the earlier events, but also the memory of feeling safe when he was around, after all he did during their last mission, and some guilt for being so much trouble for him.

Tullia put on a wide smile “Ev’ning boss!” she greeted him and now, that Valkyrie knew a little bit more about here, she could categorize her happy spirits around Shudder a lot better. You feel better? We were worried.” She asked and elbowed Eric, who obviously struggled to say something.

Shudder didn’t hesitate to get both of his employees busy with some tasks so the two of them were alone. She didn’t even dare to look at him, since she could feel the hot blush on her cheeks. She was actually scared he somehow was able to look into her head and read all the inappropriate thoughts and conflicted feelings she just lived through.

She probably could have done with awkward avoiding – but apparently she learned another new thing about Shudder, she didn’t know before – he was pretty straight forward when it came to speaking about problems. Quite the opposite of Skulduggery, who usually tests the waters before he touches any difficult topics with her. Maybe that was the reason why she felt overwhelmed by it and just wound herself through and out of the conversation as good as she could.

Granted, the Date with Tanith was a lie… but one she could turn into truth as soon as she reached her room and got away. It only took one call and Tanith was in. Valkyrie took the basement exit to the sanctuary and there they met a little more than a hour later. Tanith actually got pretty excited about this spontaneous night out – she was kind of upset, that she wasn’t part of the mission and when Valkyrie shared some of the details with her she was convinced, that things would have went way different if she would have been with them. Valkyrie did not tell her about the incident with Shudder, but the blonde woman noticed anyway that something was off with her younger sister-by-choice and didn’t take long to figure out that it indeed hat something to do with a man. Well she used the word ‘boy’, probably thinking of someone similar to Fletcher, but if she would have known she probably would reconsider her choice of words. Tanith did her best – buying them one round of drinks after another – to get any information out of Valkyrie, but the sheer embarrassment kept her lips shut. Which didn’t help the fact, that the night took some horrible turns anyway. First they were at a bar in Roarhaven, which was a little dirty, a little dark but absolutely to Valkyries liking. Right after, and after their first few drinks, Tanith thought she wants to go dancing. Valkyrie reminded her of her broken leg, with a wave of her crutch, but that was apparently no excuse for her. So they hopped on to the nearest night-club and Valkyrie couldn’t deny, that Tanith knew how to dance. She nearly was tempted to let her teach her that, once her leg was useable again. But not like Tanith left Valkyrie behind, no, she forced her along at the dancefloor, with crutch and everything – it felt infinitely stupid to awkwardly move along side Tanith’s awesome dancing skills, when she could barely turn around herself. But they fixed that issue with more drinks and less sense of shame. Their next stop was a fast food stand – which turned out to sell the best fries Valkyrie ever had, at least her drunken brain thought so. Then they more or less raided Scapegrace’s bar. Which mean they went in, Valkyrie talked a whole bunch of nonsense with said owner, while Tanith stole a bottle of Vodka and some peanuts from behind the bar. And just like that, they were gone again. Leaving a rather confused Scapegrace behind. After that they stumbled through the night – Valkyrie more than Tanith – all the while giggling and remembering funny anecdotes – until they reached a little park. They found a bench to sit on and Tanith opened the bottle and set the stolen peanuts between them as she half turned to Val. Maybe Tanith was less affected by the drinks than her, or maybe she was just a cunning monster even when drunk, but she actually started a game of truth or dare with Vally. Now Val’s only chance was to go for dare, unless she was ready to spill the whole story. So dare it was, and calling Skulduggery to tell him that he actually was the most brilliant detective ever alive didn’t seem so bad. Sure, usually she never would have flattered her partner any more – he was full of himself more than enough – but it was so much better than the alternative.

This probably convinced Tanith, since she didn’t start another try to get anything out of Valkyrie. Once the bottle lost some of its contents, the Peanuts were all gone and Valkyrie started to feel cold despite her drunken state, Tanith announced that it was her serious responsibility as older sister to get Vally home safely.

“ya don-need to! Just need a door.” Vally all but mumbled to her. Tanith didn’t understand, didn’t feel like there was anything to understand and just grabbed Valkyries arm to drag her towards the next bus-station to find the next best way to Gordon’s house. Valkyrie found it too difficult to explain to her, that she didn’t live there at the moment. Instead she just stopped Tanith by an equal pull at her arm, as soon as they reach the first few houses and stopped next to first front door in reach. “What ya doin?” Tanith asked as slurred. Valkyrie fished for the key in her pockets and as she found it a triumphant “Ah!” left her lips a little bit too loud. She giggled once more and looked at Tanith with a finger on her lips and a “pshh”. She pushed the changing Key into the door and opened it.

Both girls stepped in giggling and swaying. “This’s not Gordons ‘ous.” Tanith remarked as she looked around in awe and then turned around to Val in shocked surprised, amplified by her drunkenness. “Midnight hotel?” she asked and Valkyrie nodded laughing as she limped to one of the couches in the foyer to fall onto it.

Tanith slacked down next to her, both were laying sprawled out there, head on head. The half finished Vodka bottle put on the floor next to them. “Why?” Tanith asked “damn I never ‘as here ‘fore the war nd never since.” She explained eyes closed. Valkyrie just replied with a tired “mhm” before she figured out that her tongue wasn’t as heavy as it felt and continued. “Live here for a while. Gordon’s ‘ouse’s too lonely at the moment.” Tanith said nothing for a while and soon Valkyrie heard peaceful, even breathing coming from her. She fell asleep, and Val figured doing the same wasn’t the worst of ideas.


	13. Not the load, I wished to carry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Shudder POV.  
> Poor guy, dealing with the girls. Probably not the way he expected to get a woman into bed.

* * *

_(Shudder's POV)_

Shudder was sound asleep for once. It was close to two in the morning and he actually managed to fall asleep right after the hotel switched locations. They were in Peru now, near Callao. It even was a good sleep, no dreams, no annoying disturbance from his gist, no incident’s with guests or staff. It was such a rare thing and suddenly his damn phone was vibrating until it fell off his nightstand and woke him. He half attempted to just throw it out of the opened window until his sleep-blurred eyes saw Skulduggery’s name on the display. In an instance he was fully awake and somewhat in emergency mode. “Skulduggery? What is it?” he asked.

“I woke you up.” Was all the detective said matter of factly. As if he had expected him to be awake at this time. “Uh… yes you did. It is way past midnight…. And I sleep sometimes. It is a thing for me.” Anton replied rather uncharacteristically, sleepiness doing its part here. “I thought you were awake and… I don’t know …. Having a party or something?” There was confusion in Skulduggery’s voice and this was also something rare. “Why for the love of life should I have a party? This is no student hostel.” He retorted now also a tad annoyed. “What exactly made you think that? And why does it make you call – are you bored, or scared I leave you out on any fun?” the sarcasm in his voice was think and there was a short pause on the other end of the connection before his friend answered.

“no… hell no. Valkyrie called me a little while ago, pulling me out of meditation, just to tell me that I am, and I am going to quote here on this: the most brilliant detective there ever was. She’s so absolutely drunk! Again! Since she’s with you, I thought you might could to explain to me what’s going on. But forget it… I’ll just give her a real ticking off tomorrow myself.” Shudder could hear, that Skulduggery was about to hang up, but he stopped him. “Ahh… forget it. She went out with Tanith, so it’s probably her you should lecture about it.” As he spoke, he already got out of his bed, snatched his pants from the chair and switched on the light. “Now that I am awake anyway, I will see if I reach them and tell you when they are back.” He offered, fully aware that he wouldn’t get any more sleep now either way – he might as well got some work done. Sick days sucked anyway. “You don’t have to. She’s old enough.” Skulduggery answered, but Shudder could hear right away that he might said it, but didn’t mean it. After all they both considered the fact, that Valkyrie couldn’t walk… and if they actually were drunk, who knows how useful Tanith was if anything happened…. But then again, Shudder never saw miss Low unable to act to any threat. “I’ll get in touch with you if I know anything” was all Shudder said to end the conversation and hung up. Those damn youths! Honestly… why, why get drunk in the middle of the week? He dragged himself out of the room and downstairs, yawning, and pausing for a short moment at room 03 – Lucie was still awake, he could hear her talking, probably on the phone with her husband. He didn’t mind. Once he descended the stairs far enough to look around the corner, he already discovered something out of place in the dim light. There was a brown pair of boots hanging off one of his couches over one armrest. His eyebrow quirked upwards. He knew those boots. With careful, silent strides, he went through the lobby and rounded the corner. The picture presented to him actually made him laugh silently. The two girls there laid head on head, Valkyrie half falling off the couch and Tanith with sightly smudged makeup around her eyes. They smelled like a Tavern rag out of the old times. His bare foot bumped against something and as he looked down he saw the bottle. With a little crack of his knee he crouched down and looked at it. Vodka…. But no brand he knew. He opened it curiously and sniffed at it. Didn’t smell that great. Bold as he felt surrounded by two drunk girls – even though they were asleep – he set it to his lips, and took a little sip. Instantly his face turned to a grimace of disgust. With the obvious struggle to not spit the burning liquid out again he closed the bottle and put it on the little table behind him. “Oh girls…. You aren’t poor, you didn’t need to get the cheapest alcohol out there.” He muttered. “That’s just gross! And I can’t have you laying around in my foyer and smell like an illegal backyard-distillery.” With a sigh he got up again, just to bend down once more. His hands were carefully searching through Valkyrie’s pockets for her key. He didn’t find it in her jacket with another sigh of frustration and unwillingness his hands moved on towards the pockets of her jeans. Nothing there – he already saw himself giving away his own bed for the night and having to look for a lost key tomorrow – as he carefully turned here around a little bit, rolling her inevitably into his arms, so she wouldn’t fall off the couch. There he already saw outlined, what he was looking for, the key in her back pocket. He let out a little curse between gritted teeth. First she caught him red-handed with Lucie, and if he was lucky enough she would wake up and find him with his hands knuckle deep him her back pockets…. This was just too much coincidence to be true – there must be an actual destiny or god or whatever, and it was making fun on his costs, for sure! Carefully he let his hands slip between the fabric – just why did she have to wear such tight pants, if her leg was injured? – after a moment of actually holding his breath, he got the key and no one woke up. “You’ll be the death of me – if not Skulduggery, then you for sure!” he groaned as he scooped her up in his arms. “Time for bed, young lady. And tomorrow we are going to have a talk about decent behavior in a hotel full of half-criminals.” His ribs hurt slightly as he carried her up the stairs, although they were already much better thanks to doctor Synecdoche. Once he reached room 08, he had some struggle to get the door unlocked, without dropping Valkyrie – he had to admit she was way heavier than she looked. Another annoyed curse to himself left him as he dropped the key. At least he didn’t had to worry about Valkyrie waking up any more, at this point it got clear that she was absolutely out of it. Another door opened and as he turned his head to see who exactly caught him in a quite questionable position, he saw Lucie’s pretty face, a small laugher on her lips.

“Need some help?” she asked amused and came closer. Shudder felt caught, even though he did nothing he shouldn’t do, it certainly felt that way. “Ah….would you please….that’s kind of you.” He said, as Lucie already closed the distance between them and got to her knees to pick up the key. Not without trying to use this position to remind him of quite different situations, where she looked at him from down below like that – but it was futile. With Valkyrie heavy in his arms, the pain in his ribs and in mind, that Tanith still was downstairs, he had no mind or interest in her seductional ways. She figured and got up to open the door for him. “This looks like an interesting story.” Lucie remarked as she waited at the door and watched, how Shudder dropped the motionless girl into the bed. As he got up again he put a hand on his ribs and took a moment, until the stingy pain was gone. “It looks that way, but it really is not.” He replied finally. “They got drunk and fell asleep in the lobby. I want them gone from there, before anyone sees them.” He explained factual. “They?” Lucie asked and Shudder nodded as he passed her to go downstairs again. “Would you help me once more? There is another drunk girl I need to get up here…. I hope she is less heavy.” He muttered and Lucie followed him with a soft chuckle. “I am glad you at least have fun with this.” Shudder complained but it didn’t simmer Lucie’s excitement down. “It’s just interesting to watch.” She explained as they went downstairs. “I didn’t know you had such a soft and caring side to you.” Anton looked at her mildly scandalized. “I am neither soft nor caring. I just don’t want drunk punks in my foyer.” He defended himself, but Lucie laughed again. “If it would have been someone else you would have kicked them out, not carry them soundly asleep into their beds.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. He wasn’t aware of it until know, but she was right. Although the thought of kicking the two girls out, didn’t even cross his mind. They were Tanith and Valkyrie after all… okay he maybe would have kicked out Tanith. He always thought, that she was a bad influence on Valkyrie and a little bit too wild to work for the sanctuary, but he would have let her back in, once she was sober again…. She was still one of them and basically not a bad person. But Valkyrie was a whole different story. And Valkyrie would have been absolutely furious if she discovered that he kicked out her best friend, aside from Skulduggery. He frowned at the realization. “oh… just… don’t interpret anything into it, Lucie!” they rounded the corner to find Tanith now curled up on her side. “they aren’t grown up bad guys after all. I wouldn’t kick you out either.” Which was true as well, probably. He tried to scoop Tanith up, just the way he did with Valkyrie, but figured this wouldn’t do. Tanith still was a little bit taller than Valkyrie and, as it turned out, also a little bit heavier. Instead he picked her up and put her over his shoulder. “You both should take training less serious and lose some weight, if I am ever supposed to drag you out of the next failing mission.” He muttered between gritted teeth. “Would you take the bottle please, Lucie? I don’t want this junk around here for anyone to see.”

As they also dropped Tanith off in Valkyries room, Shudder threw the thinner Blanket over them, that was used to cover the bedding. As he was done and looked up, he saw Lucie standing beside the bed, holding a little stuffed teddy bear in her hands. “What’s that?” he asked, he was sure she didn’t have it with her – it also wasn’t her kind of thing – so it must be Valkyrie’s. “A stuffed animal.” She said and held it towards him. He took in in his own hand. It was somewhat dirty and one eye was missing, but besides that it didn’t seem old. Not old enough to be one of Valkyrie’s Childhood-treasures. He looked at the sleeping girl skeptically. Was she really still getting stuffed animals? He put it back onto the bed between the two sleeping drunks. “Whatever.” Silently he left the room and waited for Lucie to follow, once she was out, he closed the door carefully. Maybe one shared slumber-drink for Lucie and himself as well, wouldn’t hurt, he thought.


End file.
